Milei surprises with a mega bill that gives him superpowers to turn Argentina into the most liberal country in Latin America

Never has an Argentine president had so little parliamentary power, but never has he shown the extreme audacity that Javier Milei is exhibiting: the political establishment was shaken on Wednesday night with the presentation of a mega bill that aims to convert the country in the most liberal nation in Latin America, grants superpowers to the head of state and opts for a strong hand in security issues.

The project, called “Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines”, consists of 664 articles spread over 351 pages. The pompous name plays with the “Bases and starting points for the organization of the Argentine Republic” that the liberal Juan Bautista Alberdi wrote in the first half of the 19th century, and which served as the ideological substrate for the National Constitution of 1853/1860, renovated in 1994.

Guillermo Francos, the Minister of the Interior, went in person to Congress to present the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, with the voluminous project, kept in a wooden box with the national colors.

The question that millions of Argentines asked themselves hours after hearing the news was whether Milei really intends to carry out everything he proposes or simply went further than imaginable to negotiate.. We must not forget that it has 38 deputies out of 257 and seven senators out of 72.

“Milei aspires to a significant concentration of power to deregulate the economy, manage state assets, reformulate the electoral system like a blank page, modify tax rates, confront protests with a harshness never known in democracy and intervene in countless of aspects of the daily life of Argentines (…). It is the outline of an institutional project that is based on the idea that only the president embodies the popular will,” says analyst Martín Rodríguez Yebra in La Nación.

“The set of measures included in the regulatory package is based on a true 'cultural war': it is the pendulum that returns with force after 20 years in which statism with authoritarian features established the physiognomy of national duty,” he adds.

The amazing thing is that Milei is clearly playing an “all or nothing” game.. If at the inauguration on December 10 he did not even say a word to the Legislative Assembly, which he ordered to remain in their seats through an announcer while he spoke to a crowd from the steps of Congress, on Tuesday night he said that those Parliamentarians who want to stop their projects collect “bribes”, black money to negotiate laws.

There is no precedent in the 40 years of Argentine democracy of such mistreatment of Parliament at the beginning of a government. Milei has had the good will of almost all of the non-Peronist opposition, which allowed the authorities of both Chambers to be from La Libertad Avanza (LLA), despite its clear minority.. Even the Radical Civic Union (UCR), a historic social democratic government party, offers the president options, despite being at the opposite end of the spectrum on many issues and having been mercilessly criticized by Milei during the campaign.

A sector of the PRO, of former president Mauricio Macri, continues without doubting Milei's proposals, while the more moderate wing looks with alarm at the steps of the president, who last week already signed a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) that modifies essential aspects of national life.

Milei, convinced that statism ruined the promising Argentina of the early 20th century, is fulfilling a good part of his campaign promises, although his desire to lower taxes will have to wait for better economic conditions, since the legacy of Alberto Fernández's government and its Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, is of terrifying levels.

Milei's superpowers are displayed in the first chapter of the “omnibus law”, which declares “the public emergency in economic, financial, fiscal, pension, security, defense, tariff, energy, health, administrative and social matters.” until December 31, 2025″, with the option to extend that emergency for a maximum of two more years.

The National Anti-Discrimination Institute (Inadi), the National Fund for the Arts and the Theater Institute disappear, the privatization of 41 public companies is decided, from Aerolíneas Argentinas and YPF to the Mint itself and Banco Nación, and the procedures are simplified. divorce procedures, to the point that a lawyer or a judge will not be needed.

The primary elections prior to the presidential elections are annulled, a single-ballot system and single-member constituencies are established, the resale of tickets for sporting events is legalized, and a fee is established for public university education for foreigners without residence, which until now have not been they paid

The crime of blocking streets is also established more clearly and with aggravated penalties, and anyone who wants to demonstrate in the streets is required to notify the Ministry of Security 48 hours in advance.. The sanctions for resistance to authority are also aggravated and the cases of legitimate defense against a criminal are expanded..

Money laundering, a tax moratorium and the State renounces regulating the prices of fuel, gas and oil are also proposed.. In Education, a general evaluation system is established in the last year of secondary school.

The reform package is of such depth that on Wednesday night media close to Kirchnerism insisted on Milei's authoritarian drift and his supposed desire to govern like an emperor.

More moderate, La Nación also issued a warning: “What is glimpsed on the horizon is a truly new time, marked by the audacity of a man with an overwhelming transformative vocation and the unknown of a balkanized opposition to which a key is offered. to close the doors of Congress from within.”