After a two-day session, lawmakers in the Lower House voted in favour of the YPF expropriation bill, which was passed by 207 votes supporting the move against 32 against it. Six lawmakers abstained from voting. Only a week ago, the Senate had preliminary approved the bill that calls for the expropriation of a 51 percent of the YPF shares.
The Lower House voted 207-32 in favor of expropriating YPF, clearing the way for President Cristina Fernandez to sign the bill into law. The Senate last week approved the measure by a similarly overwhelming margin.
Fernandez de Kirchner unveiled the plan to seize a majority stake in YPF from Spain’s Repsol six months after her landslide re-election.
«All oil companies that operate in Argentina, Repsol and the rest, have to work in the public interest, which in this case means energy self sufficiency for Argentina,» Agustin Rossi, leader of the official bloc in the lower house, shouted in a speech just before the vote was taken.
During yesterday’s session, which was paused at midnight, the head of the Energy Committee of the Lower House, Victory Front’s Rosana Bertone opened the debate by assuring that the government «did not give any sign that threatened the judicial security» and that «there won’t be any reason» for an international controversy between Argentina and Spain.
Radical Party’s lawmaker Ricardo Alfonsín anticipated that he would vote in favour, but questioned President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the ex head of state, late Néstor Kirchner, over their support to the oil company’s privatization back in the 90’s.
«Now they admit the damage done,» Alfonsín continued, as he placed a sign with the pictures of Hipólito Yrigoyen and Enrique Mosconi over his desk that read «They created it, they did not hand it over.»
Civic Coalition’s Elisa Carrió anticipated that she will vote against the draft bill, and assured that the head of Repsol, Antonio Brufau, and Planning Minister Julio De Vido «should go to jail for the emptying» of YPF.
«I’m convinced that there are plenty of people of the pro-government bloc that has nothing to do with it,» Carrió said and added «I’m talking about the adults that kill and take the children to the slaughter house so that the traditional Peronism can put the blame on the activisits from La Cámpora.»
The government-sponsored bill determines the expropriation of the 51 percent of the shares of YPF so far owned by Spain-based energy company Repsol.
Last week, the draft bill was preliminary approved by the Upper House of Congress.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald