Argentina’s opposition-controlled Senate approved a package of social-spending measures late Thursday, handing President Javier Milei his sharpest legislative defeat since taking office in December 2023. The chamber backed a 7.2% rise in retirement pensions and lifted the monthly bonus paid to minimum beneficiaries to 110,000 pesos (about US$120), voting 52-0 with four abstentions after an oral roll-call when the electronic system failed. Lawmakers also reinstated a moratorium for workers lacking full contributions and declared a disability emergency that secures extra funding through 2027. The administration says the measures would add as much as 2.5 percentage points of gross domestic product to expenditure and could push this year’s budget back into deficit, undermining Milei’s signature austerity programme. During a speech at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, the libertarian president vowed to veto the legislation and, should Congress overturn the veto, mount a judicial challenge. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich branded the session an “institutional coup”, while Milei accused Senate leader and Vice President Victoria Villarruel of being a “traitor” for allowing the debate, underscoring growing rifts inside the ruling coalition. Constitutional specialists and Villarruel contend the sitting was valid because the opposition secured the required quorum, but the dispute sets up a confrontation that could delay implementation of the pension hike and test Milei’s ability to preserve the fiscal surplus he posted earlier this year. The clash comes three months before mid-term elections that will determine whether the president can convert his minority position in Congress into firmer legislative support.