When Néstor Kirchner cut salaries and pensions in Santa Cruz by 15%

On January 2, 1992, having just taken office as governor of Santa Cruz, Néstor Kirchner made a decision that today would be labeled by kirchnerismo as a "savage adjustment."

Through provincial decree 309/92, he signed a 15% reduction in public sector salaries and provincial pensions, alleging "inability to pay" the December wages and the corresponding bonus.

This was a measure taken to address a province with a large fiscal deficit. However, the memory of that decree seems to have been selectively forgotten by kirchnerismo, which today criticizes Javier Milei's government for wanting to veto unfeasible laws that would bankrupt the State.

Kirchner's decree, in addition to the salary cut, offered voluntary retirements and "invited" municipalities to imitate the measure. Most did so, except for Río Gallegos and Pico Truncado. Among the signatories of the decree were several names who would later hold key positions in the Nation: Carlos Zannini, Alicia Kirchner, Ricardo Jaime (later convicted of corruption), and Carlos Muratore, an official since the dictatorship era.

The paradox is that this measure, with a strong fiscalist content, was promoted by the same political space that, years later, would demonize any attempt to contain public spending in the name of the "national and popular model."

Additionally, while kirchnerismo attacks President Javier Milei for safeguarding fiscal balance, Cristina Kirchner vetoed a pension increase in 2010, arguing that it was a "bankruptcy law" for the State.

The then-mayor of Río Gallegos, Alfredo Martínez (UCR), recalled that the province "was on fire," but acknowledged that his municipality was also facing serious problems, which forced him to halt public works, refinance suppliers, and reduce operating expenses.

Sergio Acevedo, who at that time was mayor of Pico Truncado and would later become governor, defended Kirchner's measure by saying that "Kirchner reduced salaries and pensions according to the amounts the province could pay at that time."

Today, kirchnerismo accuses a president who staunchly defends the surplus of insensitivity, aiming to avoid a fiscal crisis that would once again destroy the country's economy. However, when they did it, nobody complained.