The Chamber of Deputies held a marathon session lasting nearly eight hours that put the standoff between Javier Milei's government and the opposition to the test. The focus of the debate revolved around the presidential veto of the increase in pensions and retirement benefits, a bill that included a 7.2% increase in benefits, as well as raising the monthly bonus from $70,000 to $110,000 with automatic adjustment for inflation. According to calculations by the Congressional Budget Office, the measure would entail an additional expenditure of 0.7% of GDP, without specifying where the funds would come from.
The legislative day began with a partial defeat for the ruling party: at 3:59 p.m., the opposition managed to overturn the presidential veto of the disability emergency law, which provides for an increase in pensions and the automatic indexation of professional benefits. That regulation, whose cost is estimated at between 0.22% and 0.42% of GDP, will now be sent to the Senate for possible ratification. However, the central point of the debate came with the discussion on pensions, where the government warned that fiscal balance was at risk.
The Chief of Cabinet, Guillermo Francos, strongly criticized the opposition's maneuver by emphasizing that the bills "lack committee approval and require non-existent resources." He explained that approving them would force the Executive to return to monetary issuance, a policy that Milei ruled out from the first day of his administration.
