Star Metro - Argentine Congress backs Milei veto of pensions hike

Thousands gathered to protest Milei's veto, with police firing pepper spray and rubber bullets at one group -- including pensioners -- who angrily broke down a barrier after the vote.

Twelve people were injured and three arrested, TN television network reported. No official confirmation of those figures were available.

Milei, a budget-slashing libertarian, last week blocked an 8.1-percent pension increase initially approved by both houses of Congress, which aimed to help cushion retirees in the South American country hit by annual inflation of almost 240 percent.

The president claimed the measure was fiscally irresponsible.

But after a bitter debate that lasted more than four hours, Milei prevailed, with 153 members voting against the president's veto, short of the two-thirds of the Senate needed to override it. Eighty-seven lawmakers voted in favor and eight abstained.

"Today, 87 heroes slammed the brakes on the fiscal degenerates who tried to destroy the fiscal surplus that Argentines worked so hard to achieve," Milei cheered on X.

Milei's party is in a minority in parliament and divided.

But the attempt to overturn his veto fell apart after he won over parts of the center and center-right.

"We cannot spend what we do not have, there is no money," Juliana Santillan of Milei's Libertad Avanza party argued.

But Rodrigo de Loredo, a centrist lawmaker, who voted to override the veto, said retirees deserve the modest raise, which is equivalent to a dozen empanadas, the Argentine staple pastry.

The minimum pension is equivalent to $230 per month.

- 'Betrayed' -

Several pensioners were among those who clashed with police or were detained.

Patricia de Luca, a psychologist who has just retired, said she felt "betrayed" by lawmakers and "hopeless".

Since taking office in December, Milei has applied a drastic austerity program in a bid to rein in chronic inflation and decades of government overspending.

Inflation for August stood at 4.2 percent, the fourth consecutive month under five percent and a massive drop from the 25.5 percent recorded in December.

However year-on-year inflation was still sky-high at 236.7 percent.

Critics say the steep drop in inflation and other apparent economic wins have come at the cost of the poor and working classes, and due to a strangling of the economy.

Milei's veto particularly sparked anger as it came after he decreed an increase of $102 million in the budget of the state intelligence agency -- which amounts to a 700 percent increase -- without requiring justification of expenditure.

O.Poirier--SMC