Argentine President Javier Milei’s economic reform package yesterday won Senate approval after police and protesters violently clashed outside Congress.
Lawmakers debated a swath of liberalizing reforms proposed by the president, while security forces fired tear gas and water cannons at people rioting outside the day before.
Late on Wednesday, the package won approval “in general” in the Argentine Senate, an important step for Milei’s effort to get his flagship reforms across the finish line.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“For those Argentines who suffer, who wait, who do not want to see their children leave the country ... my vote is affirmative,” Argentine Vice President and Senate leader Victoria Villaruel said after breaking the 36-36 tie in the chamber.
The bill’s separate articles were addressed point by point and approved with modifications in a full vote early yesterday.
The measure now heads to the lower house for a final green light.
The Argentine presidency celebrated the “historic approval” of the economic deregulation law as the “most ambitious legislative reform of the last 40 years.”
Milei’s party is in the minority in both houses of Congress, which he has described as a “nest of rats.”
The Senate went on to discuss a parallel tax reform, which includes reinstating an income tax to tax salaries and pensions.
Scuffles broke out earlier when protesters tried to bypass a system of fences set up between them and Congress.
Officers used rubber bullets and pepper spray against the rioters, who responded by lobbing stones at the police.
Seven people, including five lawmakers among the protesters, were treated at hospital after being pepper sprayed, the Argentine Ministry of Health said.
Dozens of others received medical attention at the scene.
Later, as night fell, thick blocks of shield-bearing officers and others on motorbikes pushed back the protesters, who overturned two cars — one of which belonged to a local media organization — and set them on fire.
At least 10 people were arrested and nine police officers were injured, a spokesman for the Argentine Ministry of Security told reporters.
In one scene, a lone protester stood and held his hand in military salute as he faced a phalanx of police in riot gear, with smoke from cannisters swirling around him.
The office of the president on X denounced “the terrorist groups that with sticks, stones and even grenades, tried to perpetrate a coup d’etat.”
Inside Congress, senators were debating into the night and early the next morning Milei’s reform bill, which was approved with major changes by the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in April.
The whittled-down bill has 238 articles, including declaring a one-year state of economic emergency, allowing Milei to disband federal agencies and privatizing about a dozen public companies including state-owned carrier Aerolineas Argentina.
Others deal with reducing access to minimum retirement allowances and weakening labor protections.
The provisions also envision tax, customs and foreign exchange incentives to encourage investment in the country wracked by economic crisis.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
RSS