After the Court's ruling, Milei will hold a key meeting with the governors to shore up support in Congress

Milei will not return to Buenos Aires until Friday. Although the top leadership of the Executive Branch is in France seeking investments, President Javier Milei and his delegation have taken charge of the parliamentary negotiations and the defense of his administration from Paris, with the mixed goal of reassuring the political establishment and trying to secure support in Congress to pass the bills introduced by the ruling party and to curb the opposition's moves. In just 48 hours, the national leader will have carved out time in his intense schedule of activities in Europe to meet with the governors accompanying him on the trip and to speak via Zoom at the IDEA Colloquium currently taking place in Mar del Plata, attended by hundreds of business leaders. To the debate over the 2027 Budget, with disability funding at its center, and the political reform, whose main point of conflict is the elimination of the PASO primaries, was added in recent hours the attempts by some legislative blocs to definitively reject Decree 70/2023 following the Supreme Court ruling on the Land Law. The starting gun was fired Wednesday night by Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli, who led a welcome dinner with the provincial representatives at the Argentine embassy in the French capital. Argentina Week is taking place in Paris. There were Jorge Macri, Chief of Government of the City of Buenos Aires; Rolando Figueroa, of Neuquén; Ignacio Torres, of Chubut; Alberto Weretilneck, of Río Negro; Claudio Vidal, of Santa Cruz; Alfredo Cornejo, of Mendoza; Rogelio Frigerio, of Entre Ríos; Gustavo Sáenz, of Salta; Juan Pablo Valdés, of Corrientes; Leandro Zdero, of Chaco; Carlos Sadir, of Jujuy; Marcelo Orrego, of San Juan; and Raúl Jalil, of Catamarca. Also Córdoba's Lieutenant Governor, Myrian Prunotto. Although the gathering was formally convened to discuss investments, much of the evening was in fact devoted to political matters and the measures being debated in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. "They rushed the agreements that had already been in the making; Santilli went to the dinner especially for that," a person aware of what happened that night told Infobae. Not even the presence of the French Minister of Economy, Roland Lescure, who came to discuss the various bilateral trade plans on the table, prevented "El Colo" from seizing the moment to try to secure legislative support. "We talked about investments, but the truth is we also touched a lot on the Congress issues," one of the governors who attended the dinner acknowledged to this outlet. During the roughly two hours the dinner lasted, the Cabinet Chief referred to the ruling that dismissed a lawsuit and enabled the unlimited sale of land to foreigners, but there was no explicit request for the provinces to back Decree 70, although some of those present told Infobae that the national officials "looked very distressed" over the matter. Santilli with the governors in Paris. "It was something unexpected; the issue had already been set aside in Deputies and now the Court brings it back up, it's incomprehensible," questioned a politician who heard Santilli's remarks, who did not explain to them what had happened. Beside "El Colo" were the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno. Although he is also part of the delegation, Justice Minister Juan Bautista Mahiques did not take part in the meeting at the embassy. In his circle, they reject the criticism from part of the Executive toward the highest court over the ruling that put the focus back on the presidential decree that was rejected in the Senate but remained stalled in the lower house. "It's something we wanted; now we have to defend it. No one is complaining; it forces us to work and to put things in order, and besides, that is the Court's role. It's better that it happens now and not in an election year," they argue. The ruling reignited a debate that the ruling party had tried to leave behind after removing the chapter on the Land Law from the Private Property Inviolability bill in order to secure initial approval. The ruling did not resolve the underlying discussion about the decree's constitutionality, but it gave the opposition an argument to try once again to overturn the mega-decree that Milei signed at the start of his term and that was the ruling party's first attempt to modify that norm. National Supreme Court of Justice. The document, which includes various reforms and flexibilizations, was already rejected by the Senate on March 14, 2024, although at that time the opposition blocs failed to gather a majority for the lower house to complete its repeal. Now, Unión por la Patria, the Civic Coalition, the Left Front, and sectors of Provincias Unidas are analyzing calling a session for October 7 or 14. If they obtain the simple majority needed in Deputies, Decree 70 would be nullified, impacting much of the deregulation policy the Government has applied since the start of its term. The decree modified or repealed rules related to rentals, commerce, health, the financial market, transportation, services, industry, and land sales, among other sectors. At the Casa Rosada, they warn that a complete rejection of that text could generate administrative problems and open judicial disputes over the measures taken throughout this time under that norm. For that reason, the ruling party began studying an alternative to separate the debate on land from the rest of the decree. The idea is to once again include a regulation on the acquisition of rural land by foreigners within the Private Property Inviolability Law, which already has initial Senate approval and awaits consideration in Deputies. The goal would be to offer an exit to the dialogue-minded blocs and the governors who question the total liberalization of farmland purchases, without their having to support the rejection of the entire decree. Another possibility that was analyzed is to incorporate a similar chapter into the National Sovereignty Defense Law, which began being discussed this week in committee, although in this case the initiative is more closely tied to the claim over the Malvinas Islands, which is why it is not the Executive's preference, as it does not want to cloud that discourse. The Government faces major challenges in Congress (TOMAS CUESTA / AFP). The issue is no small matter for the governors who accompanied the President in France. At least half of them have national deputies who answer directly to their decisions, so their position can be decisive both for the Budget and for determining the fate of Decree 70. Meanwhile, Milei also made room in his schedule on Wednesday to participate remotely in the 62nd IDEA Colloquium, being held in Mar del Plata, and to address the business leaders directly. "What we need to do is keep advancing on the structural reforms, which we will not stop pursuing in any way. If we receive the favor of the Argentines next year, as of December 11, 2027, the pace the reforms will take will be unique and unrepeatable in the world. If we achieved a result similar to October's, we would have a majority in deputies and would be two or three senators away from our own quorum. Therefore, the pace the reforms will adopt in Argentina will be such that in six months you won't be able to recognize it," he said. This Thursday, before meeting with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, at the Élysée Palace, the President will receive the 13 governors to try to personally close the backing in Congress, ahead of major debates. The immediate priority remains the 2027 Budget, which national authorities hope will begin to be discussed in the first weeks of October. After the controversy over disability funding, the ruling party introduced a parallel bill that also generated repercussions, especially in the Economy area headed by Caputo, but it calmed the protests of its allies. On the other hand, the libertarian leadership also intends to move forward in the short term with the political reform that establishes, at minimum, the suspension of the PASO in 2027, although the ultimate goal is the definitive elimination of that electoral stage. In this context, the appearance of Decree 70 on the parliamentary agenda forced the Government to recalculate a strategy that until a few days ago had been focused solely on the aforementioned initiatives.