The national government backtracked on one of the most resisted points of its reform agenda: the modification of the Rural Land Law. After weeks of negotiation and given the lack of votes of its own in the Senate, La Libertad Avanza decided to remove from the bill of Inviolability of Private Property the chapter that relaxed the current restrictions on the purchase of rural land by foreigners. The decision, confirmed on Wednesday, August 5, represented a new concession by the ruling party and the second chapter that it had to resign since the entry of the initiative into Congress, after having also withdrawn, during the debate in commissions, the elimination of the National Registry of Popular Neighborhoods (Renabap).

Hours later, at the end of a marathon session of almost twelve hours, the ruling bloc also had to sacrifice the chapter that modified the Fire Management Law, due to the lack of sufficient support. Only then, after 1:40 a.m. on Friday, did the Senate give half sanction to the rest of the bill by 37 votes in favor and 33 against, with no abstentions.

The reform promoted by the Minister of Deregulation and Transformation of the State, Federico Sturzenegger, proposed to modify Law 26,737, the Regime for the Protection of the National Domain over the Ownership, Possession or Tenure of Rural Lands, sanctioned in 2011. The official project sought to raise from 15% to 25% the limit of foreign ownership over productive rural lands per district, making more flexible a scheme that until now limited the foreignization of Argentine agricultural land.

The initiative generated a cross-cutting rejection: environmental, social, political and agricultural sector organizations warned about the finite and irrecoverable nature of the land once sold, and questioned that the reform did not contemplate concrete advantages for local producers. That resistance was joined by that of allied governors and pro-dialogue sectors, who on other occasions had accompanied projects of the Executive but this time conditioned their support.

Official defense, before the retreat

Before the chapter fell definitively, the head of the bloc of senators of La Libertad Avanza, Patricia Bullrich, had tried to unblock the resistance by presenting a modified ruling that incorporated explicit limits for foreign states, in an attempt to differentiate the purchase of land by foreign private parties from that of foreign governments.

The seat count ended up being the deciding factor. Several senators from allied blocs, including legislators linked to provincial governors, spoke out against increasing the percentage of foreignization, making it clear that La Libertad Avanza did not have the necessary support to sustain the reform in the chamber.

To this legislative pressure was added social mobilization. Environmental, trade union and popular economy organizations called for a march in front of the Congress, in the Plaza de los Dos Congresos, to which artists and public leaders adhered. The proximity of that protest ended up inclining several senators to reject the chapter, according to different coverage of the parliamentary debate.

●    Rejection of allied governors who conditioned their support on the withdrawal of the chapter.

●    Social mobilization called in front of Congress for the key session.

●    Absence of arguments that would convince the dialoguist blocs about the need for reform.

●    Recent precedent: the government backtracked on a decree that had generated another political conflict days earlier.

Although it lost two of its most resisted chapters, the project retained the core of the reform that the Executive considered a priority: changes in evictions, expropriations and property regularization. The following table summarizes the final state of each chapter after the session of August 6 and 7.

The process that led to the cut half sanction lasted for almost five months, with successive postponements and a three-week intermission before the final vote.

The day of August 6 was marked by strong disturbances in the vicinity of Congress, where federal security forces used hydrant trucks during the march called in rejection of the project. Inside the chamber, an opposition motion to return the initiative to committee was rejected by 38 votes to 31, which anticipated that the ruling party would achieve the half sanction in general.

After almost twelve hours of debate, the Senate approved the bill by 37 affirmative votes against 33 negative, with no abstentions. The vote in particular, chapter by chapter, incorporated additional modifications in several articles before the initiative was in a position to be sent to the Chamber of Deputies.

With half the approval of the Senate, the bill for the Inviolability of Private Property – now without the chapters on Rural Lands and Fire Management – now goes to the Chamber of Deputies, where it will have to go through a new debate in commissions and in the chamber to become law. The current chapters that reach the Lower House include the tightening of the conditions for expropriations, the acceleration of eviction processes and the modernization of the Real Property Registry.

The result left, according to different political analyses, a relevant precedent for future legislative negotiations: the capacity for social mobilization and the resistance of the provincial blocs managed to twist one of the most ambitious reforms of the deregulation package promoted by the economic team.

❓ What is the Rural Land Law that the Government sought to modify?

It is Law 26,737, passed in 2011, which establishes a regime of protection over the ownership, possession and tenure of rural lands, setting limits on the ownership of foreigners over Argentine productive land.

❓ Why did the Government withdraw the reform of the Land Law?

Due to lack of their own votes in the Senate: allied governors and dialogue blocs rejected extending the limit of land in foreign hands, in a context of strong social mobilization against the initiative.

❓ What other chapters fell out of the Inviolability of Private Property project?

In addition to the Land Law, the ruling party had to withdraw at the end of the debate the chapter that modified the Fire Management Law, due to the lack of sufficient support in the chamber.

❓ Which parts of the bill did get half a sanction?

The Senate approved by 37 votes to 33 the chapters on express evictions, toughening the expropriation regime and modernization of the Real Property Registry.

❓ What happens now with the project?

It goes to the Chamber of Deputies, where it must be approved in committees and in the chamber to become a final law.

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Backtracking on the Land Law: the Government backs down in the Senate | midire.ar

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The Government withdrew the reform of the Land Law from the Senate due to lack of votes. Keys, chronology and what is still in force of the private property project.

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