The privatization of state-owned airline Aerolíneas Argentinas can now be debated on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies. The ruling party La Libertad Avanza (LLA), secured the go-ahead in a congressional commission on Tuesday with support from the PRO party and some members of the UCR.

President Javier Milei vowed to privatize the flag carrier as soon as he took office, putting it on the list of companies subject to privatization in the original version of the Ley Bases. However, the clause was later removed and was not included in the version approved by Congress in June.

In early October, Milei issued an executive order proclaiming the company subject to privatization. That executive order is subject to congressional approval: if it passes both houses, the Executive Branch would be allowed to sell the company.

Hernán Lombardi, a PRO deputy, said in the debate — which grouped the Transportation, Budget, and Treasury commissions — that his party wants “more flights, more frequencies, for Argentina to be better connected within the country and with the world.”

Deputies from other parties signed two dissenting opinions. Center-left and left-wing coalitions Unión por la Patria (UxP) and Frente de Izquierda supported an opinion rejecting the privatization. Meanwhile, Encuentro Federal and the recently-formed Democracia para Siempre blocs backed the incorporation of private capital into the company, with the state being the majority shareholder.

Germán Martínez, the head of the UxP bloc, accused the government of wanting to dismantle the company. “Milei is not alone, as some say,” he said. “It’s not just him, [his sister and Secretary to the Presidency] Karina and [his advisor] little Santiago Caputo. The economic powers are behind him.” He accused deputies from other parties who support the government’s opinion of kneeling before the economically powerful.

 “It is a blind privatization, without any kind of plan — it does not generate an open skies policy, but it only privatizes skies in Argentina,” said Diego Giuliano, also from UxP.

Nicolás Massot, from Encuentro Federal, said his bloc proposed “authorizing the access of private partners into the company, with the condition that the state retains corporate control.”

Aerolíneas Argentinas’ former head Luis Pablo Ceriani said that, when managed by the state, Aerolíneas Argentinas worked “much better than it was managed by the private sector, which was disastrous.” Aerolíneas was nationalized in 2008, after being sold by a previous administration to Spanish company Iberia in 1990.

Controversy arose when Fernando Dozo, introduced as a lawyer and specialist in aeronautical law, said  the government should “call for an international tender to see who can take charge of this.” Dozo, who was an executive director of Aerolíneas when it was privatized, said the Spanish government “capitalized the company,” investing US$3.5 billion. 

“We ate the millions of dollars. Here all those who destroyed the company are at large, all at large! Starting with the convicted vice-president of the republic [Cristina Fernández de Kirchner] and those mainly responsible,” he said, raising his voice, hitting the table, and naming former Peronist officials while UxP deputies shouted at him.

UxP’s Carolina Gaillard said the company flew to 10 cities in 2008. “Now it flies to 52 — the company has no deficit, and [the government wants] to sell it because there is a business of [former President Mauricio] Macri and his friends,” she added. “And those who sign the majority opinion are accomplices”.