The elimination of the Fiscal Strengthening Fund unleashed a libertarian internal struggle in the Province

The national government’s decision to eliminate the Fiscal Strengthening Fund of the Province of Buenos Aires opened a new internal front in La Libertad Avanza. This Monday, after the measure was published in the Official Gazette, one of the libertarian blocs in the Buenos Aires Senate questioned the measure. The Buenos Aires Fiscal Strengthening Fund was implemented in 2020 to alleviate the deficit of provincial management at the expense of another district. In the same vein, the Province of Buenos Aires contributes 37% to the co-participating mass. It only receives approximately 22% and the difference is also used for purposes other than those of the people of Buenos Aires. This is a reality,” legislators Carlos Kikuchi, Sergio Vargas and Silvana Ventura said in the statement.They then called on the Executive Branch to “resume dialogue and promote consensus”: “It is important to debate this issue by resuming dialogue, promoting consensus and respecting institutionality. Advancing in a more efficient execution of public spending, as this Bloc maintained when debating the emergency laws and the fiscal package on December 29, must be our priority.” The Buenos Aires legislator of LLA, Agustín Romo, described as a “traitor” the former Buenos Aires shipowner, displaced in the middle of the presidential campaign in the midst of a scandal over the alleged sale of candidacies. President Javier Milei endorsed this consideration by liking it on X to a post by another user that replicated the accusation against the Buenos Aires legislator. The Strengthening Fund allocated to the province of Buenos Aires a percentage of additional co-participative resources that the city of Buenos Aires received for the transfer of the Federal Police.In a press conference held yesterday afternoon in the city of La Plata, the governor of Buenos Aires described the measure as “untimely and arbitrary” and revealed that he instructed the provincial state prosecutor “to initiate legal actions before the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires.” Justice of the Nation (CSJN) and that they precautionarily return the funds that were taken from us.” It is an event of such gravity that we have received accompaniment from all the political forces of the PBA and from governors from the rest of the country. The national government steals the resources of the provinces, which do not belong to a government but to the people,” the president added. The national government’s measure, published yesterday in the Official Gazette through decree 192/2024, was justified because that decision adopted during the pandemic “affected the general interests of the Nation as a whole, depriving the National State of the necessary resources for the ordering of public accounts”.

Original source in Spanish