Global Courant 2023-05-12 18:05:23
In a heated session in the Senate Chamber where the Chief of Staff, Agustín Rossi, presented his first management report to the Chamber of Senators this Thursday, Martín Martín Lousteau and Cristina Kirchner staged a spicy crossover at the end of the session that ended with the memory of “the 125”.
The “round trip” began with the explanation of the vice president that for the session on Wednesday, May 11, “a quorum is not needed.” Without wasting time, the radical senator replied that “they should have learned economics, too” to which Cristina retorted “You taught me with the 125”.
The moment went viral in a matter of minutes and users began to relive the memory of what Resolution 125 was and the memory of 15 years ago.
What is “125”: the measure mentioned by Cristina Kirchner
Resolution 125 mentioned by Cristina in 2008 had Lousteau and the then President of the Nation as two of the main protagonists. It was the one that generated the biggest conflict between the government and the countryside, with the famous “no positive” vote of the radical K, Julio Cobos, who was CFK’s vice-president, in the middle.
On March 23 of that year, the then Minister of Economy, Martín Lousteau, issued a resolution, 125/2008, endorsed by Cristina and Alberto Fernández, then head of the Cabinet, which made the withholdings for grain producers mobile. .
From left to right: Cristina Kirchner (President), Martín Lousteau (Minister of Economy), Juan Carlos Tedesco (Minister of Education) and Guillermo Moreno (Minister of Commerce) during a meeting in 2008. Photo: Emiliana Miguelez
Mobility was based on price: with grains, soybeans in this case, sold at a low price, withholdings would be almost non-existent. At higher prices, higher retentions. An international price of $400 per ton of soybeans would result in a withholding of almost 38 percent for producers.
If the price of soybeans increased, and everything indicated that it was going to increase, and it did increase, the withholdings could reach up to 49 percent: half of what is produced by agriculture would thus go into the hands of the Government.
Rural entities, forever divided, came together as one to reject the measure. The roadblocks in the interior were born, the cacerolazos in the Capital, the counter marches K with the former piquetero Luis D’Elía to the blows against the opponents in Plaza de Mayo, the shortages in the big cities and a climate of tension every ever more visible.
Part of the protests in the countryside against Resolution 125, last July 2008. Photo: Maxi Failla (AFP).
The President had no better idea than to condemn the protests on national television on March 25 with an unhappy phrase: she spoke of “abundance pickets” and reversed the burden of proof: she said she was not going to allow herself to be extorted.
Kirchnerism saw in the protests “an attempted coup” and in the so-called “dialogue tables” aimed at reaching an agreement, there was everything, including dialogue.
The conflict went to the courts: in May eight ruralistas were arrested for the roadblocks and in June the leader Alfredo de Angeli, one of the leaders of the protest, was arrested. After that arrest, the metallic concert of saucepans reached the Quinta de Olivos.
Alfredo de Angeli (right) during the “Tractorazo” in front of the Government House, during the protests against “la 125”. Photo: Jose Almeida.
On June 17, the President announced, also on national television, that Lousteau’s resolution (who had resigned on April 25) was now a bill that would be sent to Congress. The Government was convinced that in Parliament it was going to win the battle.
Deputies approved it by a narrow margin of seven votes, 129 to 122. And on July 16, in the Senate, a long and vehement debate began that lasted eighteen hours and which, before the first vote, was looming as a tie.
More than just glimpsing it, the legislators knew it: the senators of the provinces affected by the 125, including some “radical K” who decided to vote against the government project, put things so much against the “showing of hands” of the K legislators .
Demonstrators in front of the National Congress observe the treatment of “Resolution 125” in the Chamber of Deputies. Photo: Silvana Boemo.
The debate entered a long intermission room, supposedly intended to define positions so that Cobos did not have to settle differences. Already in the early hours of July 17, the Senate prepared to vote on the bill that would establish mobile withholdings for the agricultural sector, with the announced tie in dance.
The Senate voted: 36 votes in favor, 36 against. A perfect tie. Overwhelmed by responsibility, Cobos spoke: “History will judge me. I don’t know how. But I hope this is understood. I am a family man, like all of you, with a responsibility in this case (…) I am acting accordingly with my convictions. Let history judge me. I apologize if I’m wrong. My vote is not positive, my vote is against”.
The next day, the Executive Branch withdrew the bill and 125 was almost forgotten.
