The Senate set a date to debate the suspension of the PASO primaries, amid tension with Bullrich

After the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, called this Thursday for advancing with the bill to suspend the open, simultaneous and mandatory primaries (PASO), it was confirmed that the initiative will be taken up next Tuesday in Senate committees. Menem's move and the subsequent reaction from the ruling party in the upper chamber hinted at an attempt to set the terms for Patricia Bullrich, head of the libertarian bloc in the Senate, where the initiative has been stalled since April. "This is a matter that is currently in the Senate and is being worked on. I believe we will be able to suspend the PASO, God willing. I don't think Argentina needs them; it's something we have been pushing for a while now," Menem had said in a radio interview in the morning, referring to the primaries, one of the main political goals pursued by the Casa Rosada. As LA NACION anticipated, the Government had planned to convene the Senate's Constitutional Affairs Committee next week to try to obtain a committee report on the suspension of the PASO. The meeting was finally scheduled for Tuesday the 17th at 3 pm. The Casa Rosada's intention is to bring the bill to the floor of the upper chamber and secure its approval within the next 15 days — an extremely tight deadline, considering that only two weeks remain before the end of the ordinary legislative session period. If the ruling party achieves its goal and obtains half-sanction in the Senate, the bill would move to the Chamber of Deputies, where the debate would be left for the extraordinary sessions period. From the libertarian ranks in the Senate, they told LA NACION that there are "chances" the bill could receive a committee report that same Tuesday the 17th, meaning it could only be taken up on the floor on November 26, one day after the appearance of Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli in the lower chamber. Meanwhile, negotiations between Santilli and the governors do not appear to show significant progress. According to information obtained by this outlet, there have been no concrete advances in the dialogue with the provincial leaders, who are demanding electoral guarantees in order to support the reform. Even so, the Riojan sped up the matter and at the same time passed the ball to Bullrich, with whom in recent weeks he no longer hides his differences. "I believe — and this is a wish — that in the next two weeks, God willing, we should be advancing toward half-sanction in the Senate, if all the parameters one calculates come together," he said this morning on Radio Mitre. The Riojan's statements come amid an open internal dispute with Bullrich, who increasingly makes explicit her political and legislative distancing from the Casa Rosada. And so, in what can be interpreted as a message aimed at the former minister, he remarked: "Obviously, these are individual wills that have to agree on the same time, the same day, and go raise their hand in support of this decision." So far, the senator has avoided taking a position on the handling of the PASO. Instead, she used her social media this afternoon to send a suggestive message to the Casa Rosada, confirming that her bloc is already "ready" to take up the disability law in the Senate. "We have shown that we can solve things by talking," Bullrich wrote on X, adding: "And as I keep emphasizing: the country we are building is with all Argentines, with no one left out." Her words carry particular relevance, moreover, considering that the disability bill is a sensitive matter for the Casa Rosada and that, before obtaining half-sanction in the Chamber of Deputies, the initiative suffered several setbacks as a result of decisions by the Executive Branch. In fact, the 2027 budget included among its articles modifications that repealed the central aspects of the disability bill that, in parallel, some libertarian deputies were negotiating. A contradiction that provoked Bullrich's fury, who at the time issued a warning: "Don't take me for a fool." Amid this scenario, and after a series of differences the former minister made evident with the Casa Rosada, President Javier Milei posted a message on his social media, following the departure of Pope Leo XIV, that once again strained the internal tensions within the ruling party. "There are people willing to sink the ship when they realize they will not get to be the captain," the president declared on Instagram, alongside an image of a burning ship sinking. According to information obtained by LA NACION from official sources, the message was aimed at Bullrich, amid the dispute she maintains with the Casa Rosada. The episode came after it emerged last week that at Balcarce 50 they were preparing a "face-to-face" with the senator once the papal visit concluded. By Delfina Galarza