The Chamber of Deputies will resume this Thursday the commission analysis of the 2025 Budget project, amid rumors suggesting that the ruling party did not want to discuss this fundamental proposal that will establish expenditures and resources for the next year. Two weeks of previous inactivity have culminated in the call made by the president of the committee, José Luis Espert, setting the meeting for 10 AM on Thursday.
The meeting will address the project that stipulates expenditures and resources for the year 2025, with the intention of starting the discussion on each article of the official initiative. It was originally expected that the Budget would be approved between November 20 and 27, but to achieve this, an opinion must be issued between the following day and the next Tuesday.
The call for the meeting of the Budget and Finance committee has been accompanied by other political moves. On one hand, it has been anticipated that the deputy from Encuentro Federal, Ricardo López Murphy, will push for a request to summon the committee to issue an opinion, given that two weeks have passed since the last meeting of the committee. On the other hand, opposition blocs have called for a special session to reform the DNU law and repeal decree 846/24, which facilitates debt negotiation without meeting the requirements of the Financial Administration law.
The blocs of Encuentro Federal, Democracy Forever, and Union for the Homeland have called for this special session and claim to have 133 legislators to initiate the debate, while the ruling party is trying to prevent these blocs from reaching the 129 deputies needed to start the discussion.
It has been reported that the latest data suggests that the opposition would not reach the 129 deputies needed to enable the session scheduled for 3 PM. Meanwhile, the blocs of PRO and UCR have announced that they will not provide the quorum to address these proposals, arguing their concern about not jeopardizing the Government's financial policy.
The prolonged inactivity of the Budget committee for two weeks has generated speculation about the true willingness of the Government to reach an agreement with the dialogue-oriented blocs to achieve the approval of the 2025 Budget. This is tied to the warning issued last week about the risk that the repeal of decree 846/2924 would pose for future budget discussions and conversations with governors to develop a public works program.
From the ruling party, it is argued that the legislators responding to the governors do not support the opposition because the provincial leaders recognize the importance of decree 846 for the Government's financial strategy. However, the blocs of Encuentro Federal and Democracy Forever contradict this viewpoint, asserting that the repeal of the DNU would not harm the provinces but would benefit the governors in their negotiations with the National Government.
