Milei wins a battle, but is far from winning the war

After six months of negotiations, a discarded first draft, and several concessions to the opposition, President Javier Milei of Argentina secured his first congressional victory yesterday, when the Senate narrowly passed his so-called “omnibus bill,” liberalizing multiple aspects of the national economy.

The bill needed the tie-breaking vote of the vice president and head of the Senate, Victoria Villarruel, after a 36-36 draw in the Senate. Mr. Milei even postponed a trip to the G7 meeting in Italy to make sure Ms. Villarruel remained in the Senate in order to tip the scales in his favor.

A slightly different version of the bill had already been approved by Argentina’s lower house earlier this year, meaning that the text will have to return there to decide which version of the bill is finally turned into law. 

The vote took place in a tense atmosphere, as protests outside of Congress ended with torched cars and multiple arrests, in what some claim was staged violence to paint critics of the government as savage agitators.

Journalist Orlando Morales, from the right-wing Cadena 3 news radio, said the group of masked men who torched his car looked like “infiltrators.”

“We want to congratulate our security forces for their excellent work against terrorist groups carrying sticks, stones, and even grenades, who tried to perpetrate a coup d’etat blocking the normal functioning of Argentina’s Congress,” one of many over-the-top government press releases said.

What Milei’s “omnibus bill” includes

The bill starts by bestowing the president with emergency powers in “administrative, economic, financial, and energy matters” for the next 12 months, giving him scope to...