In a major political blow for budget-slashing President Javier Milei, Argentina’s Congress on Thursday overturned his veto of a law increasing allowances for disabled people.
It represents the first time the South American country’s legislature has successfully overturned a veto since Milei took office in December 2023.
The law, approved by Congress in July, seeks to bolster healthcare benefits of people with disabilities, providing for them to receive a pension and reinstating a state hiring quota which Milei’s administration had ignored.
Following a similar vote by the lower Chamber of Deputies last month, the Senate on Thursday passed a measure cancelling Milei’s veto with 63 votes to seven.
The reversal comes at a perilous moment for the government, plagued by a bribery scandal in the National Disability Agency that allegedly implicates the president’s sister and right-hand woman, Karina Milei.
It also comes in an election year with a ballot for national lawmakers next month and for senators in the opposition-controlled province of Buenos Aires next week.
Hundreds of people gathered outside Congress to celebrate Thursday’s decision.
“It brings me great happiness…so that people with disabilities can live as they should,” Trinidad Freiberg, a 23-year-old music therapist for children with disabilities, told AFP.
Milei had indicated in an interview in August that if his veto were overturned, he would take the matter to court as he pursues the eradication of Argentina’s long-standing budget deficit.
“There is no money,” his government has declared, in a decision that sparked protests.
Officials had estimated the disability law would cost between 0.22 percent and 0.42 percent of GDP.
