The DNU that increased the funds reserved for the State Intelligence Secretariat by $100 billion pesos was rejected by both Chambers.
The opposition managed to overturn the executive decree with a large majority. It received 49 votes against it, compared to 11 for it to remain in force . To achieve this, 31 votes were needed, so they surpassed the threshold with 18 more votes.
The Union for the Homeland and the UCR (with the exception of Mariana Juri) stood up to reject DNU 656/2024 . From the PRO, María Victoria Huala , Alfredo De Angeli and Guadalupe Tagliaferri -who had announced her position- joined. The former official, Francisco Paoltroni , also voted for the rejection. The Santa Cruz residents José Carambia and Natalia Gadano contributed their wills together with Edith Terenzi (Cambio Federal).
La Libertad Avanza lined up to try to support the decree with only two PRO senators – Luis Juez and Carmen Rivero -, since Martín Goerling decided to abstain. Beatríz Ávila , Edgardo Kueider and Carlos ‘Camau’ Espínola also supported the Government .
As happened in the Chamber of Deputies with the block that answers to the governors, Federal Innovation, the senators of the Frente Renovador de la Concordia Social Carlos Arce and Sonia Rojas Decut announced their abstention. The aforementioned Martín Goerling and Andrea Marcela Cristina (Encuentro Federal – Chubut) did the same. Mónica Silva (Juntos Somos Rio Negro), Juan Carlos Romero (Cambio Federal) and Mariana Juri (UCR) were absent at the time of the vote.
The Senate has definitively rejected the DNU that grants millions of dollars in funds to the SIDE.
The ruling party and its allies tried, without success and until the last moment, to delay the treatment of the Decree . The leaders of the dialogue block had agreed this Wednesday with Javier Milei to postpone it until next week. In tandem with the Rosada, Victoria Villarruel proposed organizing a secret meeting in which the head of the SIDE, Sergio Neiffert , would give answers to the legislators about the destination of the funds. Although with this maneuver they managed to remove the project to deal with the DNU from the agenda, the UCR and UxP managed to vote together to include it at the beginning of the session .
At night, while the university budget was being discussed, the government tried again to disrupt the process to avoid another defeat. They tried to arrange a recess and to do so they went to the radicals . Faced with the refusal, they gave up and assumed the imminent rejection of the Decree of multimillion-dollar economic resources for espionage.
All eyes were on the actions of the Radical Party, which made its first move by voting for the inclusion of the bill on the agenda and then took a stand to vote against Milei’s DNU. After the visit of the heads of the Senate bloc to Casa Rosada, which included Eduardo Vischi (UCR-Corrientes) , and the well-known events of the five deputies who changed their vote to support the veto of the Law on Retirement Mobility, the decision of the centennial party in the Upper House was essential.
The behavior of the five radical deputies who are now in the crosshairs of their own party and their own bloc, splashes the senators. The suspicions of corruption of the deputies who visited Milei and suddenly changed their minds about the increase for retirees, left the UCR senators in an uncomfortable position, who sought to distance themselves and confront the Government with the rejection of DNU 656/2024 .
As established by Law No. 26,122, in order to cease to be valid, a DNU must be rejected by both chambers. A little over three weeks ago, the Chamber of Deputies did not approve Decree of Necessity and Urgency 656/2024 with 156 votes in favor, 52 against and 6 abstentions. In this way, it was definitively rejected, however, the investigation regarding the expenses already made by the Intelligence Secretariat will remain in the hands of the Bicameral Intelligence Commission, since, in mid-August, it was reported that at least 80% of the $100 billion had been spent.