Argentine chamber maintains Milei’s veto on universities law

The Argentine Chamber of Deputies maintained this Wednesday (9) a veto by President Javier Milei on a law on the financing of public universities.

The law received 160 votes in favor, 84 against and there were five abstentions. Two-thirds of the house (171 votes) were needed for Milei’s veto to be overturned.

The support of the PRO, the party of former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), was decisive in maintaining the veto, because the party of the current president, A Liberdade Avança (LLA, in its acronym in Spanish), has far fewer seats than the opposition in the Argentine Chamber.

Last month, the Senate approved a measure that had passed in August in the Chamber of Deputies, which establishes an update of the budget for public universities based on last year’s inflation and a bimonthly indexation through a coefficient that would combine 50% of the Consumer Price Index (IPC), 25% of the dollar variation and 25% of increases in public service tariffs.

Last week, Milei vetoed the law, claiming that it would undermine his government’s zero deficit goal and had only political objectives.

In September, the opposition had also failed to gather two-thirds of the votes in the Chamber to reverse a veto by the president on a law that established a change in retirement and pensions that would increase State expenses.