Argentina to Extend 2023 Budget Amid Political Gridlock

If the budget project is not approved by the end of the year, the Casa Rosada should decide to extend the 2023 Budget for a certain period. During the day, negotiations with the dialoguing sector became tense due to disagreements in the original wording and due to an agreement between libertarians and peronists in the Chamber of Deputies regarding the AGN. In the Senate, the government also failed to implement its legislative strategy to the letter: after an extensive day of informational presentations where it was planned to guarantee the majority report on the labor reform, it was announced that its treatment would be extended to a second stage of extraordinary sessions in February. These last two sections had a report in 2023, with another national ruling majority. Now, the ruling coalition will prioritize the approval of the 2026 Budget and insist on chapter 11, rejected in the Chamber of Deputies. 'We are going to sign an open-to-amendments report and we propose to move the debate to February 10th,' explained Patricia Bullrich, head of the Senate Labor Commission, during a joint legislative plenary with the Budget Commission, which was working to expedite the report. Her testimony highlights the existing tensions within the national administration regarding the type of link it should have with national unionism. From union leadership, together with peronist legislative blocs, they insist on their initial eight-point plan for labor reform: gradual reduction of the workday, salary recomposition, guarantees for platform workers, articulation of collective bargaining agreements, participation in the profits of large companies, right to digital disconnection, creation of health and safety committees in companies, and an increase in parental leave. Their initial goal was to obtain a majority report next week. 'This has been the request from many powerful sectors to work on this law, instead of discussing it on December 26th,' added the former minister, explaining that that date would be dedicated to the vote on the 2026 Budget project and the Presumption of Fiscal Innocence, sanctioned in the early hours of the morning in the Chamber of Deputies. Now, the government's plan is to reach a report on the 2026 Budget project this Friday, December 19th, at 10 a.m., in a commission meeting. Hours later, it was confirmed that a report would be signed 'as a criterion of certainty,' although its final draft has not yet been made public. 'It is good that the debate is extended and that it is not closed as express as it was being attempted and that it is heard,' highlighted Senator Mariano Recalde (Fuerza Patria), although he lamented that 'the report does not collect any observation or any proposal, not even those you considered acceptable.' The extension of the treatment of the labor reform was defined hours after a march by the General Confederation of Labor in Plaza de Mayo, which was part of a 'programmed resistance plan,' as stated by the central labor organization. From there, they would specify approving the initiative in the Senate in the five remaining business days, considering that their original proposal did not advance in the Chamber of Deputies after the fall of an entire chapter. That is why they will try to reintroduce that chapter into the debate in the upper house, which implies a race against time: if it is dealt with on December 26th, the Chamber of Deputies would have two business days to deliberate on the same project again and sanction it in the chamber, trying not to extend the session beyond midnight since the extraordinary sessions were called until December 30th. But then Sturzenegger arrived and it all fell apart'. Then came Santiago Caputo and… more or less. A peronist legislator who is also part of the union leadership explained when the bridges with Casa Rosada were broken: 'With Guillermo Francos, things were going well. Before finalizing the extension, Patricia Bullrich even made an urgent visit to Casa Rosada. From that organism, they also warned about the possibility of a national strike if the project advances without modifications. A member of the union leadership attributed the officialist decision to 'the pressure from the CGT on the senators, the effect of the mobilization, and the forced errors of the ruling majority.' 'Now another game begins,' they added. In addition to the generalized criticisms in the commission.'