Martina Jaureguy 
Centrist party Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) has temporarily suspended four deputies who voted to keep President Javier Milei’s pension increase veto in place. Although they could ultimately be expelled from the party, the four men would not lose their seats in Congress as part of the UCR bloc.
On Monday, the UCR’s National Convention reported deputies Mariano Campero, Martín Arjol, Luis Picat, and Pablo Cervi to the ethics committee for “misconduct” and for “harming the party’s dignity,” said the resolution.
In June, the four deputies had first voted for a new pensions formula that also included raises for retirees. The UCR had filed and promoted the bill, which became law in August after the Senate debated it. However, Milei vetoed the bill in early September — his first time using this faculty — on the grounds that it went against the government’s goal of fiscal balance.
Per the UCR’s request, the Lower House held a session to discuss Milei’s veto last Wednesday — Congress can overturn a veto if two thirds of lawmakers from both houses vote to strike it down. However, the now suspended deputies met up with Milei at the Casa Rosada the day before this vote and announced that they would be backing the veto, a reversal from their original vote.
Once in the session, 87 deputies backed Milei’s veto, enough to keep it in place even though 153 rejected it.
The UCR National Convention also requested the ethics committee to analyze the conduct of two other deputies due to their absence in the session that addressed the veto: Roxana Reyes and Gerardo Cipollini. They have not been suspended.
José Tournier, a fifth deputy that met with Milei that day, was not sanctioned despite being part of the UCR bloc in Congress because he is not formally affiliated to the party.
Milei will be hosting an asado — an Argentine barbeque — on Tuesday night for the 87 deputies who voted to uphold his veto, whom he called “heroes.” The four suspended UCR deputies are invited. It will be held at the presidential residence in Olivos.
Backlash of the decision
Several UCR deputies who voted to strike down the veto have turned to social media to condemn the decision to suspend the four deputies.
Deputy Rodrigo de Loredo called the decision “unprecedented, greatly irresponsible, and partially selective.” “It’s not the first time bloc members have voted differently. It has no effect on the UCR deputies’ bloc,” he wrote in a post on X.
“Leading the UCR should be about listening to society’s will, building consensus, and understanding territorial realities,” said Deputy Pamela Verasay, “and not using a temporary and weak leadership to impose an opinion disguised as the absolute truth.”
UCR members critical of the decision are mostly against the party leadership, and are members of the so-called “friendly opposition” that has backed several of Milei’s proposals. Current president is Martín Lousteau, who has shown differences with the more traditional line of the party and has distanced himself from President Milei. The UCR National Convention that suspended the deputies is in charge of Gastón Manes — brother of deputy Facundo Manes — and Lousteau ally Hernán Rossi.
“This is purely a power move,” a UCR source, who is against the suspension of the deputies, told the Herald. According to them, current UCR leaders made the decision because they are aiming to form an alliance with Kirchnerism and Peronism for the 2025 legislative elections.
“They are the ones that wanted to back [Sergio] Massa in the runoff, and lost.”
