Pressure on Milei: divided, the opposition in the House of Representatives requested two sessions on the same day, and there are doubts about the quorum.

Divided, the opposition will seek to pressure Javier Milei in the House of Representatives this Wednesday. Two sessions scheduled, three hours apart, are scheduled, and although there are doubts about the quorum, pressure is growing to advance initiatives regarding the situation of the Garrahan University and university funding.

As Clarín reported, Democracia para Siempre—the bloc led by Pablo Juliano and featuring representatives from Martín Lousteau and Facundo Manes—requested a few weeks ago a special session for this Wednesday at 12 p.m. The request was also supported by fellow Radicals Mario Barletta (who has a single bloc), Julio Cobos, and Natalia Sarapura, from the UCR bloc.

They originally proposed 17 projects , covering seven different topics : university funding, the situation at Garrahan, mental health protection, promoting SMEs, jury trials, reforming the legal regime of the DNU (Decree of the National Decrees), and even changing the country's time zone.

The reality is that most of the bills have yet to be approved , and, knowing they won't achieve the special majority needed to approve them on the spot, the opposition's strategy is to vote to summon the committees. In this way, they seek to force the libertarians who chair them—like José Luis Espert in the Budget Committee—to convene them and address the most contentious issues .

The only ones that do have a ruling and therefore could receive partial sanction if voted on and approved are the jury trial law—which, as Clarín reported, Miguel Ángel Pichetto's bloc doesn't believe is the time to discuss it now and will ask to remove it from the agenda—and the modification of the law that regulates DNU (Decree Decree Laws). The opposition is putting pressure on this issue because the powers delegated to Milei expire next week, and they fear a "cascade of decrees" will begin .

The question is how many of the other members of the bloc led by Rodrigo De Loredo will end up joining. They were supposed to hold a last-minute bloc meeting this Tuesday, but they postponed it until the morning of the session.

The truth is that since the dissident radical faction that requested the session "cut itself off," the Union for the Homeland (UP) and Federal Encounter (EF) demanded that the agenda be expanded with projects that also interest them.

But the organizers refused. They only agreed to incorporate the tax withholding bills , given the expiration of the temporary reduction for soybeans and corn decreed by the government on July 1st. This is also part of a strategy to ensure that the people of Córdoba provide a quorum.

For this reason, UP and EF presented a request for a session for the same day, but later rejected four of Milei's DNUs : the one that restructured cultural organizations, the one that merged agencies of the Ministry of Justice, the one that modified the National Genetic Data Bank, and the new Merchant Marine Exception Regime, which limits the right to strike.

They also introduced the bill establishing a new Penal Tax Regime on the updating of amounts for the crime of tax evasion, sponsored by Oscar Agost Carreño of EF. The bill has been in the works since last year.

If the 12:00 p.m. session achieves a quorum, the 2:30 p.m. session clearly won't be able to take place. Beyond the complaint, both the UP and EF maintain that the mandate is to provide a quorum. The bloc led by Pichetto assures that the majority will be present, although there are always doubts about the two who answer to PRO governors.

Something similar is happening in the Union for the Homeland. At press time, they were still in a bloc meeting. "We're gathering numbers," said a prominent legislator in the bloc.

Added to this is the role of legislators aligned with the governors, who, while exerting pressure on the executive branch on issues of revenue sharing and taxes, often maintain their uncertain position until the last minute.