(Buenos Aires) Argentina’s main union center, the CGT, has called a general strike on January 24 to protest against the first decrees and bills of the ultraliberal presidency of the new president, Javier Milei.
This is the first time in 40 years of democracy that an Argentine president has had to face a general strike a month and a half after coming to power.
Hector Daer, general secretary of the CGT which claims 7 million members, announced at a press conference the strike and a mobilization planned before parliament which will then examine the deregulatory bills “which go against all of society » and concentrate “all public powers” on the president.
The mobilization, continued the union leader, is aimed in particular at a “decree of necessity and emergency” published on December 20 by the government, paving the way for massive deregulation of the economy, but of an “illegal and unconstitutional character” .
“This decree attacks the individual rights of workers, collective rights, a universal and united health system, and an incalculable number of subjects that constitute our country,” insisted Mr. Daer.
“In less than a week, they are transforming Argentina and bringing us back to pastoral Argentina,” he denounced.
Javier Milei, ultraliberal and “anarcho-capitalist” as he describes himself, has since his inauguration on December 10 published a decree to deregulate the economy through the repeal of some 300 standards.
PHOTO TOMAS CUESTA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Argentine President Javier Milei
A decree technically in force from Friday, but subject to further approval by parliament.
He also continued his “liberal” momentum by submitting to parliament on Wednesday a detailed set of projects or modifications of laws, affecting a multitude of areas of the public and private sphere: a jumble of fiscal to electoral, to the day of work, the calculation of pensions, the control and sanctions of demonstrations, or the establishment of an “express divorce”.
This vast package of reforms, known as the “omnibus law”, must also be examined by parliament, and legal opinions differ on the actual time – months, even years according to some – that it would take to examine the approximately 600 articles. .
Appeals and demonstrations
Another question concerns the outcome itself of the parliamentary process on certain controversial provisions, with a parliament without an absolute majority in either chamber. And where Milei’s party, Libertad Avanza, is only the third force – even if it can count on the support of the center-right bloc, the second in importance.
The mobilization did not wait, however, with three demonstrations in a little over a week in Buenos Aires, and several legal appeals filed against the emergency decree of December 20. Including some by the CGT itself on Wednesday.
A first series of austerity measures announced in the early days of the Milei presidency are already in effect, and with an immediate effect on the Argentines’ wallets.
Thus the devaluation of more than 50% of the peso, the national currency, and the reduction from the beginning of January in transport and energy subsidies, resulting in an immediate increase in prices destined to affect the daily lives of several million Argentines .
The objective for the government is the drastic reduction of Argentina’s chronic budget deficit, mired in inflation at 160% over one year.