Updated at 1 p.m.

Wednesday is set to be a hectic day in Buenos Aires. A massive march that includes the Ni Una Menos protest against femicides, pensioners, public hospital doctors and scientists, among others, will gather in the square outside Congress in the afternoon. 

The protest will take place against the backdrop of a Lower House meeting that began at  noon to debate a pensions raise and a moratorium.

The Ni Una Menos movement’s appearance on Wednesday will be their annual protest. The movement, which had its 10th anniversary on Tuesday, decided to move their march from the traditional June 3 to June 4 to join pensioners in the demonstration they have been carrying  out every week for the past year.

“Bringing fights together is our duty, against cuts and cruelty,” said the flyers posted in the Ni Una Menos account in recent days to call for the march. Protesters coming from different parts of the city gather outside Congress starting at 4 p.m.

Also present at the protest will be doctors and residents from the Garrahan children’s hospital, who are undergoing a dispute over wages and resources with the government. The same goes for scientists that work at Argentina’s top publicly-funded research institute CONICET as well as public university professors.

Migrants have also been called to join, following the government’s decision to toughen Argentina’s migratory policy; as well as fired workers and members of indigenous communities. 

Congress session

The Lower House is holding a session on Wednesday. Two weeks ago, a session that had been requested by the opposition to discuss similar topics fell through after it failed to reach the required number of attendees.

The list of issues to debate on Wednesday include a 7.2% “emergency” raise for pensions, as well as the return of the pensions moratorium for two years. This program allowed people to “buy back” whatever number of years of social contributions they need in order to retire. It ended in March after Milei decided not to renew it.

The opposition is also calling to debate a bill aimed at raising benefits for people with disabilities until 2027. The goal is to guarantee funding for a welfare program; cancel the state’s debt with healthcare providers for the disabled and raise their fees; and reaffirm the state’s obligation to guarantee a disabled workers quota in the public administration.

Last September, Milei vetoed a pensions raise Congress had approved on the grounds that it went against the government’s fiscal balance. Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos confirmed that they will do the same for both provisions if they pass.

“There are no funds, especially in the pensions system,” Francos told Radio Rivadavia on Monday. “We can’t pay it, even if they approve it. And if it’s approved, the executive power will veto it.”

Other issues to be debated during the session include declaring regions in Buenos Aires province and the Buenos Aires metropolitan area “disaster and emergency areas” due to the severe storms and flooding that hit in April and mid-May.