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Seen today outside the Argentinian Congress as the deputies began a 30 to 50 hour long debate to approve the Mega Law proposed by milei. The Security Ministry deployed a large contingent of militarized police (National Gendarmerie) to counter any protest that might show up (and it did). There will be a time when the US will be forced to ask for forgiveness for poisoning the entire world with their shitty export culture, that includes the fascist flag used by the Gendarme in the picture. Either way, it's kinda funny that when laws are discussed in either the Chamber of Deputies or in the Senate that might affect society at large, and negatively so, the government deploys a huge contigent of riot police and militarized police... wonder why huh?

Before we advance, here's how the Argentinian Congress looks like, annotations and party names below. The Trots hold five steats.

Key test for Milei as lower house opens debate on ‘Omnibus’ reform bill

Argentina’s lower house Chamber of Deputies opened debate on President Javier Milei’s mega reform package known as the ‘Omnibus’ bill on Wednesday, with the government confident it has the votes it needs to secure its approval.

With no surprises, the ruling party achieved a comfortable quorum in the lower house and the special session on the ‘Ley de Bases y Puntos de Partida para la Libertad de los Argentinos’ without delay. The ruling party was guaranteed the floor of 129 deputies to enable the session after the Unión Cívica Radical, PRO, Hacemos Coalición Federal and Innovación caucuses said that they would collaborate. Sources expect that they will "vote in general" for the majority opinion, while going against key articles.

A total of 137 deputies were seated at 10.30am, enabling Lower House Speaker Martín Menem to open the session. Lawmakers from the Unión por la Patria and the Frente de Izquierda caucuses did not collaborate.

Milei’s bill, which also seeks to privatise dozens of companies and expand his executive powers on economic matters, narrowly passed three congressional committees last week. To get it to a vote, the government was forced to give ground in several key areas, including eradicating the entirety of its fiscal chapter. Amendments to the ‘Ley de Bases’ has seen it shrunk in size from more than 660 articles to around 385.

After weeks of negotiations, the megalaw was slashed almost in half. Still, many key elements are left in it. The delegation of faculties to the president, giving him extraordinary (dictatorial?) powers and the possibility to ask for loans without the approval of Congress, effectively setting no limit as to how much money the country can borrow from entities like the IMF.

The numbers so far indicate that the bill will win general approval and the government is confident it has them thanks to the pro-dialogue sector of the opposition.

Everyone in this so-called "pro-dialogue" opposition is a traitor to the motherland and we should remember their names, for when our time comes.

However, there is intrigue as to what will remain of it at the close of the session – the ruling party could suffer some key defeats when it is voted for article-by-article. The UCR bloc, for example, has already announced that, while it will generally support the bill, it will not hold back on several articles, such as those privatisations of state firms. According to a tally kept by the Perfil newspaper, La Libertad Avanza and its allies provide 41 votes in favour, with another 39 to come from PRO. Another 34 votes could come from the UCR caucus, with 17 from Miguel Ángel Pichetto’s Hacemos Coalición Federal. Within Innovación, a federal space that responds to governors of several provinces, there are at least three more in favour. That would provide them with, in theory, 134 votes.

The government expects at least 108 votes against, mostly from the Unión por la Patria (Peronist) opposition caucus. Two from Hacemos Coalición Federal, five from the Frente de Izquierda and two from other spaces make up the rest. At least eight lawmakers have not stated their position.

The debate starting Wednesday is expected to last more than 35 hours, stretching over multiple days. The ruling party has proposed at least four intermissions for the session, including one at a “reasonable time on Wednesday night to give the legislators a few hours of rest to replenish their energy,” Noticias Argentinas reported. The session is expected to resume sometime after 10am on Thursday morning.

On Avenida Rivadavia, in the direction of the neighbourhood of Once, Gendarmerie trucks with water cannons, police vehicles and security equipment stretched for two blocks. At the nearby Plaza del Congreso, facing the Legislature, things were calmer as people were already milling around ahead of an overnight “vigil” called by rights groups, unions, social organisations and student protesters. The groups, which include Polo Obrero (PO) and the Coordinadora Sindical Clasista (CSC), have vowed to demonstrate for the duration of the Congress session, framing the rally as part of the “plan of struggle” against the proposed reforms.

Left-wing lawmakers Romina Del Plá, Gabriel Solano and Néstor Pitrola, of the Frente de Izquierda y Trabajadores – Unidad party issued a statement on Tuesday calling on their peers to “reject the Omnibus Law ... and the whole plan of Milei's government."

In short, the law will be approved. They have the numbers thanks to the slashing of several articles. However, the law is approved "in general", they have to literally go through all 300+ articles to approve every single one of them. This will take a long time. Plus the debate is full of irregularities, like a random businessman entering the chamber and shouting insults towards the Trots, or the Congressmen not receiving the full law text in time, meaning that they don't what they're even debating right now lmfao. Clowns.