Controversy in Argentina over salary increases for senators in the midst of the crisis

The senators of Argentinawithout debate and in a show of hands, increased their salaries by 170%, in a decision that generated controversy this Friday due to the harsh economic crisis that the country is going through, with 288% year-on-year inflation and more than half of the population in the poverty.

After the vote, which took place at the end of an ordinary session on Thursday and lasted less than two minutes, the 72 members of the upper house will earn about 4 million pesos (US$ 4,500) net per month, while the minimum wage, Today in a historic apartment, it costs around 200,000 pesos (about US$230).

The opposition blocs voted in favor, while the pro-government senators and their allies did not raise their hands, although they provided a quorum for the vote and did not ask for a nominal vote, a usual practice when there is no consensus.

“It’s crazy because it doesn’t correspond to the salaries we have”said Gabriela Quiroga, a 31-year-old clothing saleswoman who told AFP that “businesses are not selling anything” and ““You see more and more people sleeping on the street.”

Since the news broke, President Javier Milei has shared publications in which legislators are described as “cynical” and “hypocrites”while the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, wrote in X: “Shame on others about what happened in the Senate yesterday.”

Luis Juez, president of the PRO bloc, allied with the ruling party, did not raise his hand either and stated on his networks that the increase “is inopportune and a lowness at the moment that society is experiencing.”

One of the senators most targeted by the government was Martín Lousteau, president of the opposition Radical Civic Union, who half raised his hand to vote in favor: the capture of the moment was shared more than 20 times by Milei in X.

Lousteau, for his part, said in a radio interview that the measure had been agreed upon by all senators and defended the increase: “A senator was earning less than a tweeter of the president; He was charging the third part that (presidential spokesperson) Manuel Adorni”.

This week, it was learned that the presidential spokesperson will have the rank of Secretary of State, with a salary equivalent to about US$3,000 and that Karina Milei, Javier’s sister and general secretary of the presidency, will have ministerial rank, earning about US$4,000.

The ruling bloc in the Senate, for its part, reported in a statement that it will present a project to roll back the increases.

The measure was taken at the same time that, in the lower house, the discussion for the new “law of bases”, also known as “omnibus law”a large package of State reforms whose approval may be key to Milei’s government plan.

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