In a statement, the legislators accused the president of “cruelly falling on the income of retirees, who already suffer 27 percent of the adjustment carried out by ¨La Libertad Avanza¨ in just eight months of government.”

The situation of these people is critical. We have older adults below the poverty line because the income is at the lowest level in history. The minimum retirement with the bonus for the month of July suffered a year-on-year drop of 10.6 percent and five points compared to December 2023, the text indicates.

The new law proposes a monthly update of salaries based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and includes an extra compensation of 8.1 percent for January with the objective that people can match their income with the 20.6 percent inflation of that month, in which the Executive granted only a 12.5 percent increase.

It also provides that the minimum pension must not be less than the value of a basic basket for senior citizens and that the formula cannot be tied only to the CPI, but must consider salaries.

However, Milei stated that the fiscal surplus is not negotiable and announced that she will veto it in its entirety.

The deputies condemned the behavior of the president in the face of the situation of almost 5.9 million retirees and pensioners and recalled that the current context is worsening due to the fall in economic activity and the loss of 197 thousand formal jobs so far this year, the largest drop since 2002.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the mobility formula would have a fiscal cost of only 0.43 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Milei’s veto will deepen the problems that retirees suffer today and will prevent them from recovering what they have lost and giving predictability to the future of these citizens, the statement said.

From the UP bloc, we will continue to insist on the definitive sanction of the law. That Argentine retirees can live with dignity is an act of strict social justice, the text concludes.

ef/rgh/gas