The opposition blocs in the Chamber of Deputies, led by Unión por la Patria (UP) and supported by sectors of the left, formally requested the president of the Chamber, Martín Menem, to call a special session this Wednesday, May 21 at 12 p.m.
The objective is to address projects that, if approved, would destroy the fiscal surplus achieved by the Government of Javier Milei for the first time in over a century, which would mean the beginning of a new economic crisis in Argentina.
The project that already has a majority opinion, promoted by the Kirchnerism, and signed by figures such as Leopoldo Moreau, Victoria Tolosa Paz, Julia Strada, and Paula Oliveto, proposes an immediate 7.2% increase in pensions from the enactment of the law, and an increase in the minimum pension bonus from the current $70,000 to $115,000. This latter amount would represent a 64% jump.
Diputados kirchneristas.
Despite how good this may sound, the proponents of this project do not explain where the necessary resources to finance the increases would come from, so the Argentine state would return to a deficit, generating in the long term a tax increase, debt rise, or, in the worst case, the path toward hyperinflation.
The initiative appears just weeks after the national government reported a primary surplus in the first four months of the year, after more than 123 years of chronic deficits. This achievement, which the government considers a pillar of its economic program to stabilize the country, restore international confidence, and lower taxes, would be severely compromised if measures of this type prospered, which according to preliminary calculations would represent an additional expenditure of at least 0.3% of GDP.
Despite the strong electoral component of the proposal, the opposition blocs did not present an alternative financing plan nor proposed cuts in other areas of the state. In fact, a good part of the signatories of the initiative have systematically rejected any adjustment measure promoted by the government, including spending reduction or a state reform to downsize state structures.
Javier Milei
Meanwhile, the Left Front added an even more costly proposal: the delivery of a Universal Retirement Benefit for people without contributions, which should be equated to the minimum pension. In parallel, another project proposes modifying the Universal Pension for the Elderly (PUAM), lowering the access age from 65 to 60 years for women.
This type of initiative, which appeals to short-term populism without support in the country's fiscal reality, not only jeopardizes the balance of public accounts but also the future of the beneficiaries of the pension system.
