Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Holdouts bill cleared for debate

Victory Front (FpV) lawmaker Axel Kicillof is pictured at the meeting of the Lower House committee of Budget.

After rough discussions, Lower House committees today cleared the holdouts bill for debate with changes proposed by the Renewal Front and criticism from Victory Front lawmakers.

The bill will reach the floor next week. If it passes, it will then be up for debate in the Senate, where the situation is similar, with Let’s Change needing help from opposition lawmakers to ensure the bill passes.

FpV lawmaker and former Economy Minister Axel Kicillof strongly questioned the preliminary agreement reached with so called “vulture” funds, saying Paul Singer - the US billionaire who commands the NML hedge fund -, “is waiting for Argentina to sign” and has “his fork and knife” ready.

“We never saw a Congress to be extorted this way to vote,” Kicillof today said as he addressed a meeting of the Lower House budge committee in which lawmakers continued to discuss accord the administration of President Mauricio Macri seeks to turn into law as soon as possible.

“They are making us vote blindly,” the ex-minister insisted and affirmed he did not believe the text of the deal “has been written in Argentina.”

“I was there; they bring you papers and tell you ‘sign this or you have to leave’,” Kicillof said referring to the negotiations he personally led in New York when he was the minister of Economy.

“Public opinion must know that no discount was obtained, they are being paid what they ask for. We are paying for their lawyers, we are paying for the lobby, besides of them taking a fortune; they are not paying for anything.”