Buenos Aires, Dec. 23 (NA) -- La Libertad Avanza has secured new backing from Peronism to pass the 2026 Budget in the Senate next Friday, as four senators from Convicción Federal will support the general vote and most articles of the law that sets spending and revenue for the coming year. In this way, the government is on track to have an approved budget for the first time since President Javier Milei took office in December 2023, as it has so far governed the country under the extension of the law passed in 2022. The only doubt for the ruling coalition was the tight numbers it has to pass Article 30, which seeks to repeal funding for the Teacher Education Act, the Science Act, and the percentage allocated to technical schools. Unlike the general vote, which could reach 48 votes as four Peronists have already announced they will vote in favor, for Article 30 the ruling coalition only has the support of PRO, most of the Radical party, and provincial blocs. In that vote, the number of opposition lawmakers present in the chamber when that point of the budget is voted on will be key, as it is the only one that concerns the ruling coalition, according to parliamentary sources to the Argentine News Agency. That article, which establishes the repeal of the articles that set an investment of 6% of GDP for the educational system, 1% of GDP for the National Science System, and 0.2% of Public Sector spending for technical schools. La Libertad Avanza needs to vote on the budget project and each of its articles to turn the project passed by the Chamber of Deputies into law. General Vote La Libertad Avanza has 21 lawmakers (including its own and Luis Juez) and has the support of a dozen radicals, three from PRO, two from the Misiones Front of Concordance, one from Independence (Tucumán), one from Salta, one from La Neuquén, another from Chubut, and five from United Provinces. One of the surprising facts this Tuesday was the decision by one of the blocks of the Peronist inter-bloc, Convicción Federal, to contribute its vote to the Milei-promoted budget at the request of PJ governors, according to parliamentary sources to the Argentine News Agency. Convicción Federal has five lawmakers, four of whom have already decided to vote in favor of the project in general, while one representative from La Rioja, Fernando Rejalaun, has not decided yet as the governor of that province, Ricardo Quintela, rejects the initiative. However, they clarified that they would not support Article 30, which proposes the repeal of funding for the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation; for Technical-Professional Education; and for the National Defense Fund. In this way, the first major split in the Senate will occur between the governors of the Justicialist Party and the wing that still responds to former President Cristina Kirchner, who is represented in the upper house through the bloc presided over by José Mayans. Senator Carolina Moisés is one of the Peronist lawmakers who would vote for the 2026 Budget. The senators who would vote in favor in general are Fernando Salino (San Luis), Carolina Moisés (Jujuy), Guillermo Andrada (Catamarca), and Sandra Mendoza (Tucumán), parliamentary sources informed the Argentine News Agency. Andrada, like Mendoza, answer to their respective governors: Raúl Jalil and Osvaldo Jaldo. Meanwhile, the unknown that still persists is how the Santiago del Estero Civic Front, which includes former governor of that province Gerardo Zamora and Elia del Carmen Moreno, will vote. In the Chamber of Deputies, of the seven lawmakers who answer to Zamora, five voted against while two were absent. In any case, until Friday and in the same session, negotiations will continue for the ruling coalition to have all votes guaranteed for the discussion of each of the articles.
