‘Lives at play’: Argentina’s Senate passes Milei reforms as protests rage
Al Jazeera
Senators embark on all-night session to approve the controversial economic plan as protesters clash with police outside.
Argentina’s upper house has narrowly passed a controversial bill key to libertarian President Javier Milei’s economic reform plans as thousands of protesters clashed with police in the streets.
Senators voted 37 to 36 late on Wednesday to give provisional approval to the plan, embarking on an all-night marathon sitting, extending into the following day ahead of votes on each article of the package, which includes radical measures on privatisation and tax breaks for investors.
The Senate had been divided down the middle over the bill, which was eventually decided by a tie-breaking vote from the head of the chamber, Vice President Victoria Villarruel.
“Today, there are two Argentinas,” Villarruel said at the session. “A violent Argentina that sets a car on fire, throws rocks and debates the exercise of democracy, and another Argentina with workers waiting with great pain and sacrifice for the change that they voted for.”
As the senators voted, thousands of protesters poured into the streets, burning cars and throwing Molotov cocktails as hundreds of federal security forces pushed back with rounds of tear gas and water cannon.
