Strong speeches and contained silences: the strategies in the Senate that will approve the agreement with the IMF on Thursday

“We are going to meet tomorrow morning - for today - and we are going to define it” repeated the Senators of Juntos for Change at the end of the Budget Committee meeting where the opinion was signed to discuss the new agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

The meeting of the opposition bloc is scheduled for 11.30 in the office of the head of the interblock, Alfredo Cornejo. The point to be discussed is not whether or not the 33 senators will support the agreement with the Fund because that was clear in Deputies, but that the discussion will pass whether or not the senators needed by the ruling party are enabled to reach two thirds and be able to sit this week.

“The toughest sectors want to make them sweat a little,” explains an opposition senator referring to those who call themselves hawks within the PRO. “They are the ones who did not want to support the agreement if La Campora did not do so and who are now asking that it not be held until it is clear what they are going to do with the withholding, so they are asking to adhere to the regulations,” he adds.

The rules of procedure in the Senate state that it has to pass 7 days between when there is an opinion and it is dealt with in the precinct. To advance it, 48 of the 72 senators need to be seated and voted on. Today, without the support of Together for Change, the ruling party does not reach that number.

“I don't think blood will reach the river, there is some kind of agreement to deal with it quickly. It took us 15 minutes in the committee to sign the opinion. But some want to show their teeth, we'll see if we do it in the venue on Thursday,” said the same source.

Regarding the speeches and the positioning that the Senators of Juntos for Change will carry out, different sources consulted said that it will end being defined at today's meeting but that the axes will go through places similar to what was heard in Deputies. “The idea is discourses that show our responsibility and their irresponsibility. To this will be added the inflation figure and the issue of withholdings, but it will be well defined tomorrow -for today-”.

In the ruling party, things are not better. The head of the block, José Mayans, called a meeting for the same Thursday morning to organize that afternoon's session if he gets two thirds.

The Formoseno strives to highlight that the bloc meeting held this Monday “was very good”, although other voices explained that during that meeting, which was held in Cristina Kirchner's office, there were crosses and demands, but that the legislators most linked to Christianity and La Campora decided to take a step back and do something. which, it is supposed, could be repeated on the premises: silence.

“We have to wait. Maximo Kirchner is not here to be pointed out all the time, but there is Cristina Kirchner. She's hardened in this, but we know they're going to point her out all the time. We are going to be silent, we are not going to ask for the floor at all and it has not yet been defined how we are going to vote”, they explained from the surroundings of some senators who, clearly, do not ponder Guzmán and his work.

The dissenting signing of the ruling by Senators Juliana Di Tullio and her Santa Cruz counterpart Ana María Ianni somehow anticipated that the bloc will vote divided and, in case anyone doubted, Mayans himself pointed out that “more than half will vote in favor”. For now, doubt remains about a total of 15 out of 35 votes.

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