Buenos Aires, Nov 29 (NA) -- The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, will be re-elected for a second consecutive term next Wednesday, in a session where the new power map in this body will be configured with the assumption of the legislators elected on October 26.
The designation of the President of the chamber will take place in the preparatory session in which the 127 deputies will be sworn in, as well as those who will replace the legislators who have a mandate until 2027 but have resigned to take positions in the Senate or Provincial Legislatures.
The vote for the authorities will be held with the deputies sworn in that day and those who have a mandate until 2027.
After a very tough year in which the opposition took control of the legislative body and managed to pass laws rejected by the Government, Menem will face a more favorable scenario for the ruling party from December, as between his own and allies, he will have about 116 legislators, which is just 13 short of the quorum to enable the session, according to legislative sources told the Noticias Argentinas News Agency.
Menem will have the backing to keep his post from La Libertad Avanza (LLA), PRO, UCR, Provincias Unidas, and Innovación Federal, while a rejection from the left and an abstention from Unión por la Patria (UxP) are expected.
Photo: Agencia NA (Archive)
The new map shows that the ruling party is close to a first minority, although this will only be defined on Tuesday because it will depend on whether Peronism finally suffers a fracture, since today LLA has 92 legislators and UxP 97, so if the Catamarca deputies and one from San Luis leave the bloc, they will be left with 92, and that parity can be easily broken by LLA.
In case the ruling party manages to get the first minority, that will also allow it to have the first vice-presidency that Peronism has today, and one more member in each of the committees, which are the ones that handle the reports discussed in the session hall.
The firmest candidate to occupy the first vice-presidency of LLA is the Minister of Defense and elected deputy from Mendoza, Luis Petri, while Peronism would keep Cecilia Moreau to be part of the leadership of the lower chamber, learned the Noticias Argentinas News Agency.
One of the doubts that will remain is who will occupy the third vice-presidency that PRO currently holds, since both Provincias Unidas and the new space of dialogist governors aspire to become the third force in this legislative body.
Another topic that will be discussed is whether any criterion will be imposed on Menem for the formation of committees, since in 2023 only the blocs and not inter-blocs were taken into account as in previous management, and it was done by the D'Hont system.
Prior to the session, the blocs will have time until Tuesday to present their lists of their benches, since based on that it will be known how the new map will be formed in this legislative body.
The blocs will also define their authorities prior to that date.
