Buenos Aires, January 19 (NA) – Due to strategic timing issues or a lack of guarantees for approval, the Government has decided to remove from the February extraordinary sessions agenda several initiatives vital to its political project. These initiatives will be pending until the formal start of the ordinary parliamentary calendar period. The most notable absence, especially considering it had been included in the previous extraordinary call in December, is the 'National Commitment for Fiscal and Monetary Stability' project.
The Fiscal Rule According to information gathered by the Argentine News Agency (NA) from high-ranking sources in the ruling coalition's parliamentary blocs, some opposition dialogist blocs had serious doubts about the text and could not commit to supporting a law that puts a 'straitjacket' on public spending, even in extraordinary and exceptional circumstances such as a pandemic or a natural or humanitarian catastrophe.
The famous 'fiscal rule' law, which strictly maintains a zero deficit in any scenario, has a valid committee report and had in fact been included in the agenda of the last session of the Chamber of Deputies, where the Budget and the 'Fiscal Innocence' law were approved. With the quorum at serious risk of failing, it was decided to suspend that session, and the bill could not be debated, returning to committee. Now, the ruling coalition will have to wait at least until March to resume its consideration.
This law aims to create a system of sanctions for public officials or directors of public banks who generate unnecessary or excessive spending, or who implement distorting mechanisms of monetary emission. Ultimately, the law attempts to reproduce the libertarian axiom that one does not spend more than what enters the state's coffers. This golden rule has been applied without exception since the beginning of Milei's administration and is symbolized by the image of a chainsaw.
The adjustment has reached such an extreme that the Government is not even willing to apply the existing emergency laws for pediatrics, university funding, and disability, which were passed in both chambers and reinstated after presidential vetoes.
Criminal Code Reform Another project that was on the extraordinary sessions agenda but has now been 'dropped' from the list by a decision from the Casa Rosada is the reform of the Criminal Code, a cornerstone of the former Minister of Security and current LLA bloc leader in the Senate, Patricia Bullrich.
Through this initiative, the Government seeks to refound the Criminal Code, a regulatory body whose original sanction dates back to 1921, despite receiving partial patches with modifications over the decades. According to leaks, the text would expand from 316 to 920 articles.
The Bullrichists had attempted to rush the debate at the end of last year through a bicameral commission, but the proposal did not gain traction. Among other points, the reform would include the imprescriptibility (non-expiration of statute of limitations) for heinous crimes such as homicide, sexual abuse, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and crimes against humanity. It also incorporates a general hardening of penalties for all types of crimes, with greater depth in cases of corruption and drug trafficking.
The text seeks to absorb many of the proposals announced by the Government in recent times, such as the new juvenile penal regime (which lowers the age of criminal liability), the 'antimafia' law, the recidivism law, and the trial-in-absentia law. Furthermore, the reform creates an entire chapter dedicated to cybercrimes, which includes the creation of false sexual content with AI, revenge porn, grooming, cybersexual harassment, phishing, or scams to obtain confidential data, etc.
Decree on Intelligence However, when it comes to the absence of projects, the one that caused outrage in the opposition was the non-inclusion of Decree 941/2025, the presidential measure with which the Government aims to reform the national intelligence system and expand the powers of the SIDE.
The opposition, starting with the most hardline faction, wanted to empower the Parliamentary Procedure Committee to treat the initiative in February, with the intention of overturning the decree in both chambers and nullifying its legal effects. The opposition blocs were left empty-handed: the Government only included in the extraordinary agenda the labor reform, the glaciers law, the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, and the appointment of Fernando Iglesias as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Argentina to the European Union.
'The Milei government calls for an extraordinary session to treat the slave labor reform and the nefarious modification of the Glaciers Law without including Decree 941/25, which reforms the Intelligence Law,' recriminated national deputy of the Left Front Nicolás del Caño.
In a post on social media X, the PTS leader concluded that 'there was no urgency to pass this decree between night and dawn' but rather 'only the objective of strengthening the repressive apparatus and giving superpowers to the SIDE to spy on, pursue, and detain opponents and anyone who organizes to reject Milei's policies and his accomplices.'
'If the legislative bicameral does not meet within the established deadlines, it is necessary to promote the broadest mobilization so that both chambers meet and reject the decree,' warned the Trotskyist leader.
