Carrió criticized the ruling that upheld the sale of land to foreigners and asked the Chamber of Deputies to reject the chapter in DNU 70/2023

Following the ruling that eliminates limits on land sales, the founder of the Civic Coalition asserted that "what is being affected is territorial integrity" The founder of the Civic Coalition, Elisa Carrió, referred to the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the decree allowing the sale of land to foreigners without limits and asked the Chamber of Deputies to reject the chapter in DNU 70. In a conversation with Infobae al Mediodía, the former deputy explained how the maneuver that allowed the ruling party to revive the Land Law unfolded: "They send the law and lose it in deputies. What was the trick that happened in the Senate? That the allies had something to do with it. Instead of rejecting in the Senate the part limiting foreign lands, they removed it from the agenda. So it fell through. There the allies were accomplices, because you should have rejected it." And she explained: "If the land chapter had been rejected by deputies and senators, this would no longer be in force, but by removing it from the discussion, the DNU remained in force in that land chapter. What the deputies have to do now is remove the rejection of the DNU in the land part." Elisa Carrió asked the Chamber of Deputies to reject the chapter of DNU 70 that enables the sale of land to foreigners Carrió detailed the constitutional logic that, in her reading, explains why the decree remains in force. If the Executive Branch converts a provision of a DNU into a bill, submits it to Congress, and that chamber rejects it, that part of the decree is implicitly repealed. The problem, she stressed, is the reverse path: when a chamber decides not to address the matter instead of voting against it, the decree remains valid. "There was no rejection by both chambers," she summarized. That absence of a formal pronouncement was, in her analysis, what kept the questioned article in force. The ruling that reactivated this discussion was issued this Tuesday by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, signed by justices Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti. The court overturned a ruling by Chamber III of the Federal Court of Appeals of La Plata which, in March 2024, had declared article 154 of DNU 70/2023 unconstitutional —the one that eliminates restrictions on the acquisition of rural land by foreign citizens or companies— following an injunction by the Center of Malvinas Islands Ex-Combatants (CECIM) of La Plata. However, the Court did not rule on the merits of the matter. The ruling merely stated that the CECIM lacks standing to litigate in this case: the court held that territorial sovereignty is a state competence and not a "collective good" within the meaning of article 43 of the National Constitution, so the civil organization cannot represent that interest before the courts. The ruling itself clarified that it does not imply a judgment on the constitutional validity of the decree nor does it restrict Congress's powers to analyze and reject it. The former deputy questioned the parliamentary maneuver by the allies in the Senate when they removed the debate on the Land Law from the agenda (Candela Teicheira) That clarification did not stop the opposition reaction. As reported by Infobae, leaders of different blocs began to articulate a strategy to overturn DNU 70/2023 in the Chamber of Deputies, where until now they had not managed to gather the necessary votes. Decrees of this type must pass through the Bicameral Legislative Procedure Commission and be rejected by simple majority in both chambers. The Senate had already voted in that direction, but the lower chamber had not completed the procedure. Faced with that scenario, in Javier Milei's government they are evaluating a legislative route: incorporating the regulation of land purchases into the Law on the Inviolability of Private Property, which has half-sanction from the Senate and awaits treatment in Deputies. The idea, according to libertarian sources cited by this outlet, is to negotiate with the allies a 15% limit on rural territory for foreign acquisitions. "We believe we should open the negotiation with the allies on that bill. The Law on the Inviolability of Private Property must be resolved, it is already in Deputies," said one of those sources. The objective would be to disperse the pressure on the decree and leave the land debate within a bill of their own, with more favorable conditions for the ruling party. The Executive Branch is considering negotiating with allies a 15 percent cap on foreign rural purchases within the Law on the Inviolability of Private Property (Photos: Charly Diaz Azcue / Comunicacion Senado) For Carrió, the problem is of another magnitude. In her statements, she warned that what is at stake with border restrictions is the territorial integrity of the federation. "You have the provinces in a federal state, you have the nation, powers of the nation and you have powers of the federation. So, you cannot give away that freedom," she pointed out. In that context, she cited statements by tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel —who reportedly mentioned the intention to carry out "experiments" with this model— and warned that foreign interest in Argentine territory is not new: "They did it in the Islands, they have the model, now they are going to take Argentina as an experiment." Regarding Patricia Bullrich, Carrió was direct. She recalled that when the current libertarian senator was part of her political space, "she proposed the nullity of all decrees and spoke of the independence of the judiciary." She acknowledged that Bullrich has good intentions and a vocation for change, but questioned her methods and her conception of power. "There are people who were born for power," she stated, and clarified that "enormous differences" persist between the two of them.