In Shocking Move, Senate Rejects Export Taxes

In a stunning and historical turn of events, Argentina’s Senate rejected the government’s plan to impose sliding export taxes on agricultural exports. After more than four months of increasing tension between the government and farmers, the fate of the government’s controversial tax plan came down to the vote of a single person, Argentine Vice President Julio Cobos.

After 18 hours of tense debate, 36 senators voted for the taxes and 36 against, leaving Cobos as the only person capable of breaking the tie. As vice president of the nation, the constitution gives Cobos a tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate. Cobos took his seat and anxiously grabbed the microphone to address his colleagues and the nation.

Visibly nervous as he explained his decision, Cobos looked exceptionally uncomfortable voting against the taxes. He said his vote “en contra” did not mean he was “betraying” Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner or her government. “May history judge me,” he said,” looking uncertain about the wisdom of his decision. “I ask for forgiveness if I am wrong.”

Cobos’ vote marks an inflexion point in Argentine politics. It demarcates a veritable before and after in the era of the Kirchners. Former president and current Peronist party leader Nestor Kirchner had equated farmers and those opposed to the taxes with “golpistas” who wanted to overthrow a democratically elected government via an “economic coup.” Kirchner’s own government, which ran from 2003- 2007, was characterized by a powerful executive branch that dominated a docile Congress. Kirchner ruled largely through presidential decrees and government resolutions that did not require congressional support. Cristina Fernandez has governed much the same way since she took office.

Indeed the conflict over the farm taxes began March 11 after the government imposed the taxes on the sector through a resolution that required no congressional support and was not subject to any kind of vote. Months of nationwide farm protests led the president to submit the taxes to Congress, a first for her government.

The Senate vote turns contemporary Argentine politics upside down, represents a stunning and unusual setback from the executive branch, and potentially opens the door to greater participation from congress and opposition parties in Argentina’s future political debates.

Farmer and famed opposition leader Alfredo De Angeli said Thursday that the vote need not be seen as a blow to the government. “I don’t think this is a blow for them,” he said in an early morning television interview. “They can come out of this strengthened and they can even head into the 2011 election strengthened with an agricultural sector that is producing more than ever.”

Cobos, for his part, described Thursday as “the hardest day in my life.”

“I am just a family man like the rest of you. The country is broken.”

That Cobos felt the need to ask for forgiveness for his vote says a great deal about the state Argentine politics.

Link: The original government resolution raising export taxes (in Spanish)

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