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Argentina Senate property bill
Thousands of protesters clashed with police outside the Argentine Senate in Buenos Aires on Thursday as the Senate debated the “Inviolability of Private Property” bill, with security forces responding with tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon.
“Protesters clashed with police as thousands of people braved stormy weather”
The bill aims to make changes to property ownership in Argentina, including streamlining eviction procedures, changing rural land use rules and making it more difficult for the state to take ownership of private property.
The government of libertarian President Javier Milei aims to use the bill to provide a legal framework that attracts investment, while opposition and environmental groups denounced a risk of “colonization, fragmentation, fracture and balkanization of the homeland.”
Milei’s party backed down in the Senate with only 20 seats in a 72-senator body, removing a chapter that would have raised the limit on land available for foreign purchase from 15 percent to 25 percent.
An AFP correspondent said demonstrators carried Argentine flags and banners reading “The homeland is not for sale.”
Tear gas, arrests, injuries
In Buenos Aires, protesters and police clashed as the demonstration drew to a close at nightfall, with scuffles breaking out on Congress Square where protesters targeted police with stones and other weapons.
Bangkok Post reported that at least two officers and one protester were injured, and that ten people were arrested, though the toll was not initially confirmed by authorities.
DW said security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against demonstrators in downtown Buenos Aires on Thursday, eventually dispersing the crowd protesting the “Inviolability of Private Property” bill.
Marcela Arin, who traveled from the southern province of Neuquen to join the protest, told EFE, “Defending our territory is crucial … We must take to the streets to protest.”
After more than two hours of sporadic clashes, Le Figaro said Parliament Square was cleared around 8:00 PM, although a handful of protesters remained without incidents.
What’s at stake next
The property reform package became one of Milei’s most divisive legislative initiatives, with opponents arguing it would benefit large investors, weaken protections for land ownership and accelerate eviction procedures affecting vulnerable communities.
“the executive had planned to raise, from 15% to 25%,”
Le Figaro said the bill would facilitate eviction procedures in case of unpaid debts and makes it harder for the State to expropriate private property, while also aiming to loosen the change of use of certain rural lands including those that were burned in the past.
The most controversial part was removed after Milei’s party backed down, with Le Figaro saying the executive had planned to raise, from 15% to 25%, the threshold of land that could be acquired by a foreign individual or legal entity.
Le Monde reported that on Wednesday, August 5, Patricia Bullrich walked back on the eve of the upper chamber examination of the “inviolability of private property” text, which was to be debated on Thursday, August 6.
Mediapart said the “inviolability of private property” challenge mobilizes a broad swath of Argentine society calling for a demonstration on Thursday, August 6, with slogans including “The Fatherland is not for sale!”
