Facundo Iglesia 
by Facundo Iglesia and Valen Iricibar
Chief of Staff Nicolás Posse officially filed President Javier Milei’s mega-decree in Congress through the Senate on Friday afternoon, within hours of the legally-mandated deadline of 10 working days. The controversial presidential decree, which took effect on December 29, mandated widescale economic deregulation, modifying and annulling hundreds of laws.
Now, a new clock starts ticking: a bicameral commission of eight deputies and eight senators has 10 working days to analyze it before it reaches the floor of the Senate and the Lower House.
While Vice President Victoria Villarruel has already published the Parliamentary Decree appointing eight senators, the Lower House has yet to decide on their eight deputies. Head of the Unión por la Patria (UxP) bloc Germán Martínez told the head of the Lower House, Martín Menem, to set up the bicameral commission together “urgently.”
He also called for a higher number of UxP representatives to be on the commission proportional to the coalition’s size. The former ruling coalition is the largest in Congress, with 102 out of 257 seats in the Lower House (and 33 out of 72 in the Senate). According to legislative sources, this is behind the delay in appointing the commission deputies.
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Meanwhile, Milei’s La Libertad Avanza only has 38 deputies in the Lower House and eight senators. While UxP has positioned itself against the mega-decree — and the government’s omnibus bill — the center-right Unión Cívica Radical (UCR)’s stance is less clear.
Alejandro Cacace, the UCR Parliamentary Secretary, told the Herald that his party aims to open the possibility of discussing parts of the DNU, something the current law would not admit if the decree is not modified. Milei has rejected the possibility, saying that the DNU should be approved as it is, with its 366 articles encompassing wide-ranging topics: from the right to protest and healthcare costs to football club ownership to graduation trips for high school students.
“We believe that it should be possible to open the DNU for its partial approval,” Cacace told the Herald, insisting a labor reform is urgent. “It also seems to us that this would be favorable to the government as well, to consolidate the positive reforms that are made, and to avoid the risk of a total rejection of the bill.
“We must also pay attention to the judicial developments on the issue.”
The mega-decree has faced fierce opposition with spontaneous nationwide protests and multiple legal battles, with many injunctions calling for it to be declared unconstitutional. This week, the Labor Appeals Chamber issued two stays against the labor reforms in the mega-decree, which include limiting workers’ right to strike or protest as well as carry out union gatherings. In response, the government has said it would appeal and
When asked if the UCR would vote favorably for the DNU if no modifications were made, he insisted the party would go for its partial approval. “Any other thing is a hypothetical scenario that will be evaluated when the time comes,” he said.
