In the early hours of Friday, after an evening of heavy clashes outside the Congress building, the Senate approved a reduced version of the government’s controversial Private Property Rights reform bill, which will now be decided by the Chamber of Deputies.
The changes focus primarily on speeding up evictions and tightening the rules governing state expropriations.
However, the approval of the bill amounted to a Pyrrhic victory for the government. To secure enough votes, it was forced to let go of two initiatives that had been central to its original proposal.
The first was a reform of the Land Law that would have opened the door for foreigners to purchase up to 25% of Argentina’s territory. The other changed the Fire Management Law and would have allowed land burned by wildfires to be sold and used for other purposes.
The Land Law proposal was withdrawn before Thursday’s debate after the government lost support among several of its allies. The measure faced intense political and social opposition, particularly over concerns about foreign ownership of strategic land and natural resources.
