BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine riot police fired water cannons on protesters Wednesday to disperse the crowds outside Congress, escalating tensions before lawmakers were expected to vote on the president’s proposed state overhaul and tax laws Javier Milei.
Libertarian Milei’s political opponents, powerful labor unions and thousands of protesters began converging around Congress early Wednesday as the Senate opened debate on the key legislation.
The demonstrators urged senators to reject Milei’s program of harsh austerity and economic deregulation. Hundreds of police, backed by armored cars with mounted water cannons, blocked the route at the edge of the square in the center of Buenos Aires, the country’s capital. Protesters jostled and pushed against the police column.
The vote is the most serious test yet of the libertarian leader’s vision for governance and change.
Milei came to power on the promise that he would solve Argentina’s worst economic crisis in two decades. But his political party of relative newcomers holds only a small minority of seats in Congress and he has struggled to make deals with the opposition.
Senators began debating two bills Wednesday: a tax package that lowers the income tax threshold and a 238-article constitutional reform bill, initially called the “omnibus bill” because of its more than 600 articles.
This watered-down version still delegates broad legislative powers to the president on energy, pensions and security, and includes measures to boost investment, deregulate the economy and reduce the budget deficit.
Certain sensitive topics, such as the provision of health care through unions and the privatization of Argentina’s national oil company, have been dropped in the hope of reaching a compromise.
