Argentine President Javier Milei is being accused of accelerating his presidential earnings whereas pushing huge spending cuts throughout the federal government to take care of the nation’s financial disaster.
Experiences emerged over the weekend that Milei’s month-to-month wage increased from 4 million pesos (equal to $4,700, in accordance with the official change price) in January to barely over 6 million pesos (or $7,073) in February. The wage hike was additionally prolonged to different high authorities officers.
Milei’s 48 % pay increase sparked outrage amongst opposition members, particularly after the president had promised to deliver a chainsaw to the Argentine economic system and drastically reduce public spending.
The scenario escalated on Monday, when Milei fired Labor Secretary Omar Yasín throughout a stay interview with TV channel LN+, claiming that the wage enhance was “an error that should not have been made.” In accordance with the president, the pay enhance was an computerized adjustment from a decree signed by former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner 14 years in the past.
“I have just been informed that as a result of a decree signed by former president Cristina Kirchner in 2010, which established that political officials should always earn more than public administration employees, an automatic increase was granted to the political staff of this government,” Milei wrote Saturday in a submit on X, previously Twitter. “Every day that passes we find a new rule that favors politicians and harms Argentines.”
“In a time of crisis like the current one in which Argentine society is making a heroic effort, politicians have to be the first to lend a helping hand,” he added. “The political joke is over.”
However Milei’s rationalization did little to quell criticism. Opposition figures are saying that he approved his personal wage enhance by way of a decree he signed on February 29 after which used Yasín as a scapegoat. The decree established a wage enhance in February for nationwide authorities employees, together with the president, vp, ministers, secretaries, and undersecretaries.
“With the banner of austerity, Milei lies to us,” congresswoman Victoria Tolosa Paz, who served within the cupboard of former President Alberto Fernandez, wrote on X. “The President lies to all Argentines.”
Even former President Kirchner responded to the accusation by saying that the decree she signed years in the past has nothing to do with the wage scandal. “Admit that you signed, got paid and got caught,” she wrote.
Milei gained the presidential election final yr, promising to shock Argentina’s economic system to finish its financial disaster. He promised to dollarize the economic system, abolish the central financial institution, and drastically reduce authorities spending.
Simply two days earlier than the scandal, the president’s social gathering, La Libertad Avanza, introduced a invoice reversing a proposed wage enhance of round 30 % for deputies and senators. Milei rallied towards the increase, which had been permitted in late February by Vice President Victoria Villarruel and decrease home chief Martin Menem. “I don’t agree with the salary raise. I understand that they might have needs, but 60% of Argentines are poor and 10% are destitute,” Milei stated on LN+ on Thursday.
Milei rescinded his pay increase on Saturday. He additionally stated that he can be returning the cash he was paid final month by discounting it from the next month’s paycheck. However for a president having hassle passing his deregulatory measures in Congress and relying nearly solely on his public recognition, the scandal poses a big risk to his bold financial agenda.