Far from being a quiet day, the special session today in the Chamber of Deputies once again became a space for partisan disputes. As had been rumored since the previous one, the opposition tried to strain the debate for the rental law.
It was the national deputy of the PRO, Hernán Lombardi, who formulated a departure from the regulation to enable the treatment of a project to repeal the current regulations in force. When said attempt was frustrated -due to lack of support-, the president of the UCR bloc, Mario Negri, raised a motion to summon the venue to meet on August 23 based on the files that propose both modifications to said regulations and their outright annulment.
The request for the repeal of Law 27,551, sanctioned in 2020, fell far short of the three-quarters of aggravated majority that it needed: it garnered 102 positive votes, against 113 rejections and 9 abstentions.
Next, the Cordovan radical pulled out of the hat a move that disconcerted the ruling party, which was not informed of the maneuver: motioned that the lower house convene a special session for the August 23 at 12 with a specific focus on the Rental Law.
As argued by Juntos por el Cambio, the objective of both motions was to highlight the lack of interest of the ruling party in resolving one of the great concerns of citizens related to access to housing.
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Determined to respond, the head of the Frente de Todos bloc, Germán Martínez, stated that a motion to “summon” the venue is not contemplated by the regulations. And he threw explained to the opposition leader that could collect 10 signatures to request the holding of a special session by ordinary means.
«All good with the regulation, but let’s not get creative“Martínez launched ironically.
However, Negri did not remain silent and argued that his request was adjusted to article 126, and refused to withdraw it. «Antecedents abound from 1985 to date. It is the power of the plenary session of the Chamber to summon a special session and said motion requires a simple majority“, he explained.
He was supported by the experienced deputy of the Federal interblock, Graciela Camaño, who judged that it would always be better to resolve the regulatory interpretation controversy in the plenary as a whole, through a vote. The president of the Civic Coalition bench, Juan Manuel López, and the PRO deputy, Silvia Lospennato, also gave their support to Negri.
In her turn, the deputy camporista Paula Penacca pointed out that the regulation does not enable this type of motion as the one expressed by Negri and asked “stop paving” thinking if it’s possible “get one more dot in the frame of an electoral campaign”for which he demanded to continue with the agenda item.
Finally, considering the differences on the interpretation of the Regulation, the head of the radical caucus toagreed to postpone the vote on his motion.