A traditional battle for office space has erupted in the Chamber of Deputies following the new composition of the body. La Libertad Avanza (LLA) is claiming the spacious offices that the Radical Civic Union (UCR) occupies in the Legislative Palace, according to legislative sources reported by the Argentine News Agency (NA).
The dispute is on the second floor of the Legislative Palace, where the UCR has occupied spacious and desirable offices since the time of Ricardo Balbín. Now, with the UCR reduced to only six legislators from the 33 it had at the beginning of Javier Milei's term, the situation has changed. The office of the Radical bloc's former president, Rodrigo De Loredo, which included an antechamber, an office, and an extensive meeting room, has already been occupied by his successor, the Mendoza-born Pamela Verasay, who will lead a bloc of six deputies. "They have more offices than deputies," a source told NA. The ruling coalition argues that "common sense and daily operations must take precedence over custom and memories" regarding the radicals.
In contrast to 2016, when the Cambiemos alliance took office, there is no dispute with Unión por la Patria (UxP) this time, as they had ceded office space back then. Legislative sources told NA that UxP "will largely maintain the offices it has, as it was the most politically stable bloc in terms of seats." In the Senate, the situation is more complex. La Libertad Avanza was disadvantaged by the office distribution implemented by Vice President Victoria Villarruel, increasing the dispute between Villarruel and Bullrich and angering the libertarians. So far, only the future head of the LLA bloc, Patricia Bullrich, has secured an office, taking that of current Deputy Martín Lousteau; her bloc colleagues Pablo Cervi and Agustín Monteverde have also been placed. The distribution was carried out through decree 607/25, which established "an organic and more equitable distribution of available spaces."
The new offices on the second floor are in a strategic location, just one floor from the offices of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem. La Libertad Avanza will demand this spacious office for its president, Gabriel Bornoroni, as he will lead a bloc of 95 deputies and will want most of the offices on that floor for the presidents of the main committees. Sources from LLA indicated that, as UCR is an allied bloc, an agreement will be sought to place Verasay elsewhere in the Legislative Palace. Sources from the UCR told NA that the location has great sentimental value for their century-old party because those offices were occupied by former Radical leader Balbín when he held a seat in 1946 during Juan Domingo Perón's presidency. They also noted that another point of discussion is the number of employees the UCR has, with 23 secretariats for which they are trying to find new destinations, although that negotiation is not easy, they acknowledge in LLA. In contrast, the future Second Vice President of the body, Luis Petri, has already taken the office of Julio Cobos.
