Javier Milei's government managed to approve the 2026 budget

The national government achieved on Tuesday one of the most relevant political and economic victories of its administration: the approval of the 2026 Budget. After more than eight hours of debate in the Senate, the initiative was passed with 46 affirmative votes in the general vote—just two short of reaching two-thirds, with full attendance—against 25 rejections and one abstention. This way, Javier Milei's administration manages to present to the market and the international community a spending plan endorsed by Congress at the beginning of the second half of its term.

The support was not limited to the general vote. In the specific vote, all chapters of the bill were also approved, including the second chapter, which contains article 30, questioned by the opposition for enabling possible cuts in education allocations. That section obtained 42 positive votes, a comfortable figure that dispelled any doubt about the enactment of the law.

The parliamentary engineering left a central political fact: in addition to the 21 senators from La Libertad Avanza, the ruling party added the support of the ten legislators from Unión Cívica Radical, three from PRO, provincial senators and, significantly, votes from Peronism that broke with Cristina Kirchner's order. Guillermo Andrada (Catamarca), Sandra Mendoza (Tucumán) and Carolina Moisés (Jujuy) supported the government. The dissident Justicialist Alejandra Vigo (Córdoba) abstained on the entire bill, while other senators did so on specific sections, such as Julieta Corroza (La Neuquinidad).

The 2026 Budget establishes the Executive's main macroeconomic variables: a GDP growth of 5%, an annual inflation of 10.1%, an exchange rate that would be around $1,423 in December of next year and a primary surplus equivalent to 1.5% of GDP. The financial result, meanwhile, would be positive at 0.2%. In addition, an increase in exports of 10.6% is projected. The message is clear: fiscal balance, predictability and a break with the logic of chronic deficit.

During the debate, the reporting member of La Libertad Avanza and president of the Budget Committee, Ezequiel Atauche (Jujuy), emphasized the paradigm shift: "In the last 13 years it had not been possible to comply with a Budget that has a zero deficit and it is very important to generate internal and external confidence." The senator recalled that Milei took office with a country risk "above 1,900 basis points" and with "30% of public debt maturing in one day", defined as "a ball of interest that could be dismantled with great effort". He also maintained that the government has taken "more than 10 million people" out of poverty and extreme poverty.

Atauche defended article 12—which authorizes the State to request information from universities—and was blunt: "It was presented both in the Kirchner era and in Macri's era and today we are including it again in the Budget."

From Kirchnerism, Jorge Capitanich questioned the bill with a long and scattered speech, while the representative from La Pampa Pablo Bensusán warned about the transfers to pension funds, pointing out that "the same amount as in 2023" is allocated. In UCR, Maximiliano Abad highlighted that "an approved Budget is essential for the functioning of the Republic", although he criticized article 30, which he defined as a "broom" that "sweeps away the investment floors in education and science."

The closing was in the hands of Patricia Bullrich, who framed the vote in historical terms: "Today we are deciding whether Argentina will believe in itself again." The minister stated that the 2026 Budget "doesn't improvise, doesn't deceive and doesn't promise what can't be fulfilled", and concluded with a central political definition: "The surplus is not a circumstantial goal, it is a rule. The deficit is the red line that separates the future from disaster."