{"id":150346,"date":"2025-06-14T05:26:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T05:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-controversy-over-salaries-intensified-the-senators-discontent-with-victoria-villarruel\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T05:26:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T05:26:48","slug":"the-controversy-over-salaries-intensified-the-senators-discontent-with-victoria-villarruel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-controversy-over-salaries-intensified-the-senators-discontent-with-victoria-villarruel\/","title":{"rendered":"The controversy over salaries intensified the senators’ discontent with Victoria Villarruel."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/picture>
La vicepresidenta y titular del Senado, Victoria Villarruel (RS Fotos)<\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The ongoing saga regarding \u00a0senators’ diets\u00a0 and the possibility of dissociating themselves from the \u00a0latest increase\u00a0 recently initiated via decree by \u00a0Vice President Victoria Villarruel\u00a0 has further strained relationships within the Senate. Villarruel, who once assured that she would step back from this issue, has become more aggressive in her communications with different legislative blocs. The irony lies in the fact that those who choose to receive the increase \u2013 which is less than \u00a0$500,000\u00a0 gross \u2013 will be allowed to donate it, while others will have to make a decision based on their current salary of just over \u00a0$9 million\u00a0, which, net, falls between \u00a0$6.8 million\u00a0 and \u00a0$7.2 million\u00a0.<\/p>\n

How did a week that began calmly turn into tensions by Friday? On Monday, it was revealed that a resolution, signed the previous Wednesday by \u00a0Villarruel\u00a0, acknowledged the impact of the recent \u00a0collective bargaining agreement\u00a0 for Congress employees, proposing a \u00a01.3% retroactive increase\u00a0 for March, April, and May. Villarruel then invited all \u00a0senators\u00a0 to decide whether to adjust their respective diets accordingly and to formally inform the Presidency of their choice. Since April of last year, legislators have had their \u00a0remunerations\u00a0 directly correlate with workers’ salary increases, effectively creating a rare moment of unity amid political divides.<\/p>\n

The deadline for submitting their decisions was set for the end of the week. Consequently, a race ensued among senators to announce their personal choices, keenly aware of how this would play with both the government and the electorate. The potential difference equates to an increase from the current \u00a0$9.1 million\u00a0 to \u00a0$9.5 million\u00a0 gross starting next month. As of Friday at 7 PM, reports indicated that at least \u00a030 legislators\u00a0 had submitted requests to detach themselves from the increase. It became evident that the \u00a0Frente de Todos\u00a0 bloc, as previously noted, had no intentions of altering its stance on the matter.<\/p>\n

Everything shifted dramatically by 8 PM, when the full list was released: \u00a035 senators\u00a0 from the dialogue-oriented opposition \u2013 comprising members from parties such as the \u00a0UCR\u00a0, \u00a0PRO\u00a0, and a few provincial representatives \u2013 stood with the entire ruling party and \u00a0Fernando Rejal\u00a0 from the Kirchnerist interblock. This effectively meant that nearly all \u00a0Peronists\u00a0 and some from the dialogueist factions would continue to accept the hikes in their salaries. Amid this discussion, several senators argued for using these funds to support the \u00a0Garrahan Hospital\u00a0, as proposed by \u00a0Lucila Crexell\u00a0, while Rejal considered donating to a hospital in his home province. On the other hand, the \u00a0UCR’s Flavio Fama\u00a0 suggested directing the funds to a local university.<\/p>\n

\"El<\/picture>
El decreto con el que Victoria Villarruel permiti\u00f3 a los senadores “adecuar” sus dietas. Con esto, intent\u00f3 congraciarse con la Casa Rosada y dej\u00f3 la decisi\u00f3n en manos de los propios legisladores<\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The central issue here is that, unlike financial commitments made before, senators cannot dictate to authorities how to allocate a portion of their salaries. Many choose to donate part of their wages, but this has led to instances where some senators exploit this to create fictitious charitable efforts without accountability, prompting a debate that seems to spiral into the realm of fantasy. Furthermore, those who submitted requests to dissociate themselves from the controversial increase will not benefit from the differential pay.<\/p>\n

A message sent by Villarruel to party leaders has sparked significant backlash among various factions. \u201cWeren\u2019t you supposed to stay out of this? Now you\u2019re publicly calling us out and rushing us? It feels like a pointless witch hunt. Why not discuss the numerous appointments you\u2019ve made in recent weeks instead? Or address the \u00a0missing resolutions\u00a0?\u201d exclaimed a source from a frustrated office.<\/p>\n

Others added their voices, denouncing the situation as an \u201cinstitutional embarrassment.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve recently lost our administrative secretary, who was close to her. It\u2019s not hard to see why the tension exists. \u00a0Victoria has often not followed through on her commitments\u00a0, and we\u2019ll bear the consequences of that. I can only imagine the turmoil she\u2019ll face when managing the \u2018Casa\u2019 with the impending renewal in December,\u201d commented one insider, hinting at ongoing power struggles.<\/p>\n

The most disheartening aspect for many remains the stagnation within the Senate. Legislative priorities suffer, with limited government agenda items to address and scarce opposition-led projects moving forward. \u201cWhat happened to our agenda?\u201d lamented someone from a dialogueist faction, projecting an air of defeat as the coming week, devoid of significant sessions, promises little hope for productive engagement. The small number of level-headed individuals maintaining connections between the vice president and differing factions stands out amid the prevailing chaos, alongside ongoing legislative efforts. Notably, the City of Buenos Aires will celebrate some form of success as it navigates these tumultuous waters.<\/p>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La vicepresidenta y titular del Senado, Victoria Villarruel (RS Fotos) The ongoing saga regarding \u00a0senators’ diets\u00a0 and the possibility of dissociating themselves from the \u00a0latest increase\u00a0 recently initiated via decree by \u00a0Vice President Victoria Villarruel\u00a0 has further strained relationships within the Senate. Villarruel, who once assured that she would step back from this issue, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14246,27728,8017,2069,2911,2541,36980],"class_list":["post-150346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mazagine","tag-controversy","tag-discontent","tag-intensified","tag-salaries","tag-senators","tag-victoria","tag-villarruel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}