Twelve deputies from Argentina’s oldest political party, the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR), broke ranks from the party bloc in the Chamber of Deputies over some of its members’ support for President Javier Milei.

Starting Thursday, Pablo Juliano will preside over a 12-deputy bloc critical of the president called Democracia para Siempre (Democracy Forever). They split from the original bloc led by Rodrigo de Loredo, which retained 21 lawmakers.

Tensions within the bloc have been escalating for months. A group of five UCR lawmakers backed both of Milei’s presidential vetoes, one blocking a bill increasing retiree pensions and another aiming to secure university funding. UCR members are usually called radicales (radicals), those who backed Milei’s initiatives were called radicales con peluca — “radicals in wigs,” as if sporting Milei’s trademark hairdo. A group of UCR members more critical of Milei asked them to be expelled from the party, but that did not come to fruition.

Deputy Facundo Manes and Senator Martín Lousteau are among the most vocal UCR critics of Milei’s measures.

On Wednesday, De Loredo and other UCR deputies met with government officials in Casa Rosada, the national seat of government, aiming to discuss Milei’s 2025 budget bill. For the deputies who ended up forming the Democracia para Siempre bloc, that was the last straw.

“All of them with their wigs on. Overacting their support for the ruling party,” said Fernando Carbajal, a UCR deputy who then split from the main bloc, in an X post while the meeting was ongoing.

A source from the new bloc said that deputies were supposed to have a party-wide meeting, but that De Loredo decided to go to the Casa Rosada instead of participating. “All this started because five deputies decided to change their position and vote against the UCR on two occasions,” the Democracia para Siempre source said. “De Loredo preferred to shelter them, instead of respecting the party’s position, what was agreed at the party’s convention, and 12 of its deputies.”

“It is clear it was De Loredo who chose to break the bloc,” the source said.

A source from the UCR bloc rejected Democracia para Siempre’s version of events, claiming that they held a meeting hours before the Casa Rosada meeting in which the breakaway deputies insisted on expelling the five lawmakers who voted for the presidential vetoes.

For weeks, according to the same UCR source, threats to abandon the bloc had been made for weeks. “They were a minority, and they could never impose their vision in the bloc, of a stern opposition to the government,” the source said, adding that their stance placed them “very close to Kirchnerism.”

The source said that the break was very recent, but thought that they might be “bridges” between the ruling La Libertad Avanza and other opposition blocs like Peronist Unión por la Patria, which currently holds the largest number of seats in the house. 

Meanwhile, a communiqué by the new bloc accused remaining members of the original UCR bloc of allying themselves with Milei. “We decided to create a new legislative bloc to be consistent with the mandate of our voters and with our identity,” the press release said. 

A source from the new bloc chose not to comment when asked if they forecast a similar split in the Senate.