Martina Jaureguy 
Updated 3:30 p.m.
President Javier Milei railed against a new 6.5% salary raise for senators, who starting next month will earn AR$9,000,000 (US$9345 at the official rate, US$6976 at the MEP rate).
Milei called it “treason against the Argentine people” and wondered out loud who was responsible for this “mockery,” an apparent jab against Vice President and Senate head Victoria Villarruel.
“I don’t know who was responsible for such mockery, but those who have allowed this outrage against workers will suffer the consequences at the ballot box when people go to vote,” Milei wrote in a long X post on Monday night.
Although the president never mentioned her by name, Villarruel posted a story on Instagram defending herself, saying that the decision was not hers and that the senators had the power to negotiate salaries on their own. Senate employees, on the other hand, depend on general negotiations carried out by body authorities.
“I only decide over salary negotiations of employees,” she wrote. A person close to Villarruel told the Herald that she asked senators to negotiate on their own and uncouple their salaries from those of employees so that pay raises for the latter don’t benefit the former.
The president’s rant might have been successful. On Tuesday, Villarruel called for a session on Thursday so that senators can vote on whether to reject the raise, after several media outlets reported that, amid harsh criticism, Senate bloc leaders presented her with a note stating they wanted to withdraw the raise.
“This way we’ll put an end to the overreactions that plague Argentine politics in every sector, and that are distressing Argentines,” Villarruel said in an X post announcing the session.
A Senate source, however, explained that lawmakers can’t technically give up the raise. If they fill out the necessary paperwork, they can donate it. They can also vote on whether they want to discuss their salaries separately from Senate employees or join their collective bargaining agreements.
If the pay raise goes through, the senators’ new take-home pay will be AR$ 7.8 million (US$8,099 and US$6,046), almost 30 times the AR$262,432.93 minimum wage for September (US$272 and US$203).
“Who earns 9 million a month? No one,” Milei said, condemning what he called a “shameful salary raise” and the “signatures that allowed this waste in favor of politicians and against Argentines.”
“The Senate should have empathy for Argentines and not pull their leg by raising their own salaries every month,” Milei said. “It seems like they don’t understand that the salary they receive comes from the tax all Argentines pay.”
Milei’s comments come in the midst of tension in their relationship after the vice president missed a major military event on Friday, allegedly because she was not invited by Presidency Secretary Karina Milei.
