The bill to renationalise the Argentine railway network has gained the support of lawmakers from opposition parties PRO, the Renewal Front and the radicals, easing the path for approval as it is debated today in the Lower House.
The proposal was submitted to Congress in March and announced by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner during her speech to inaugurate the ordinary sessions. It seeks to transfer the railway administration to the state under the scope of Ferrocarriles Argentinos, new state-run company.
As well as government-allied lawmakers in the Victory Front, most of the main opposition blocs declared today that they would support the move to bring the railways back into public hands. A vote on the matter, which should be overwhelmingly in favour of nationalisation, is expected in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
«We want the railways to be a public service, not just a merely declared public interest, given that the service implies the obligation of regular, continuous operation across the Republic’s territory,» radical lawmaker Miguel Ángel Giubergia stated in revealing his intention to back the initiative.
«We have not come here to put obstacles in the way, but we have suggested several changes. Some have already been included in the committee document.»
Felipe Solá, of Sergio Massa’s Renewal Front, also pledged his support on the grounds that the bill «does not nationalise nor privatise,» the railway system, «rather it brings order to the system of trains.»
The head of the Lower House Transport Committee, María Eugenia Zamarreño, underlined today that the spirit of the bill is that the public administration recovers a power handed in to private hands during the «shameful privatization process of the 90’s.»
Source: Buenos Aires Herald