What Bold Claims Did the Minister Make About Economic Potential?
Suggesting that the province pursue independence, Jorge D’Onofrio, the transport minister in Buenos Aires province, has set off a political firestorm. In a recent radio interview, he asserted that Buenos Aires would have the “biggest GDP in Latin America” should it be its own country.
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Member of the left-wing Peronist government of the province, D’Onofrio called the policies of Argentina’s national government, run under right-wing libertarian President Javier Milei, “madness.” He charged Milei with methodically weakening the country and intensifying the continuous power conflict between the central government and the most populated part of it.
What Provincial Struggles Are Happening Against National Policies?
Transport policy is among numerous important conflict areas between Buenos Aires province and the Milei government. Although the province does not include Buenos Aires, it is home to around 17.5 million people, or almost forty percent of Argentina’s population. The province’s principal city, La Plata, boasts a metropolitan area of nearly one million people.
Buenos Aires is one of five provinces still governed by the opposition Peronists, who lost the national president to Milei in elections almost a year ago. Leading these tensions is Axel Kicillof, the governor of the province and an economist strongly associated with the Peronist movement headed by former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
What Call for Constitutional Reform Was Made?
“I could be proposing today as a leader of Buenos Aires that we go to a constitutional reform to see if we get out of the national state,” D’Onofrio said in his interview on Radio Splendid. He said, “If the province of Buenos Aires were a state today, it would have the richest GDP in Latin America.” D’Onofrio underlined that although he did not think independence was the best answer, it was “a debate that we Buenos Aires citizens have to have because we produce 45% of Argentina’s wealth and we collect 22% of revenue sharing, subsidizing the inefficiencies of the rest of the national state and the provinces.”
What Clash Over Bus Service Deregulation Is Taking Place?
Recently, the national government suggested ideas to deregulate bus services; Kicillof has openly objected, claiming Buenos Aires province will not follow. Should D’Onofrio’s vision take off, the conflict between the national and provincial administrations might intensify. The transportation minister even implied that Buenos Aires could print its own money.
What Reactions Have National Leaders Made to These Remarks?
The offensive comments soon attracted censure from national politicians. D’Onofrio’s idea was turned down by Luciano Laspina, an Argentine Chamber of Deputies member linked with the centre-right party of former President Mauricio Macri. “Made by one of Kicillof’s ministers, the proposal to make the Province of Buenos Aires independent from the Argentine Republic is the most ridiculous thing that has been said in years,” he added.
It is still to be seen how these tensions will affect the relationship between Buenos Aires province and the national administration and the broader consequences for Argentina’s political scene as this political drama develops.
