The Buenos Aires City Legislature ( es, Legislatura de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, links=no, commonly known as the ) is a central part of the Government of the City of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. It is housed in the Legislature Palace ( es, Palacio de la Legislatura, links=no), an architectural landmark in the of

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

History

The internecine warfare between those who favored a united

with a strong

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

(''

Unitarios Unitarianists or Unitarians (in Spanish, ''Unitarios'') were the proponents of the concept of a unitary state (centralized government) in Buenos Aires during the civil wars that shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in ...

'') and

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

leaders who favored an independent nation of their own (''

Federales ''Federales'' (singular ''Federale'' or, rarely but aligning with Spanish, ''Federal'') is a Spanglish word used in an informal context to denote security forces operating under a federal political system. The term gained widespread usage by En ...

'') dominated local political life in the decades following the

Wars of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List of o ...

and led to the 1880

Federalization of Buenos Aires Federalization, in Argentine law, is the process of assigning federal status to a territory with the purpose of making that territory the national capital. Federalization of Buenos Aires politically separated the city from the Buenos Aires Provinc ...

. Pursuant to this new policy, in 1882 President

Julio Roca Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz (July 17, 1843 – October 19, 1914) was an army general and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 1880 to 1886 and from 1898 to 1904. Roca is the most important representative of the Generation ...

signed National Law 1260, which created the presidential prerogative of the appointment of the

Mayor of Buenos Aires , image = R larreta.jpg , alt = Mayor of Buenos Aires , incumbent = Horacio Rodríguez Larreta , incumbentsince = 10 December 2015 , style = No courtesy, title or style , residence = Buenos Aires ...

, as well as a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

by way of compromise towards the put-upon local gentry. The newly formed city council (''Consejo Deliberante'') originally included 30 ''Concejales'' elected via

male suffrage Universal manhood suffrage is a form of voting rights in which all adult male citizens within a political system are allowed to vote, regardless of income, property, religion, race, or any other qualification. It is sometimes summarized by the slog ...

(though this excluded the city's

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

, which made up a majority of voting-age males at least as late as 1914). The body first met during the tenure of Mayor

Torcuato de Alvear Torcuato de Alvear y Saenz de la Quintanilla ( Montevideo, 1822 – Buenos Aires, 1890) was a 19th-century Argentine conservative politician. He was the son of soldier and statesman Carlos María de Alvear and father of Marcelo Torcuato de Alvea ...

, with whom a precedent for a productive relationship was established by cooperating on an unprecedented urban planning a renewal agenda. The council's resolution in 1921 for new grounds befitting a governing body of what had become one of the world's most prosperous cities was likewise approved by the Mayor at the time,

José Luis Cantilo José Luis Cantilo (6 February 1871 – 11 October 1944) was an Argentine diplomat and politician of the Radical Civic Union. He served both as ''intendente'' (mayor) of the City of Buenos Aires and as governor of Buenos Aires Province during the ...

. A lot to the southwest of the

Plaza de Mayo The Plaza de Mayo (; en, May Square) is a city square and main foundational site of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was formed in 1884 after the demolition of the Recova building, unifying the city's Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Armas, by that time know ...

was set aside for the new building's construction, and was inaugurated on October 3, 1931. The 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution led to the rescission of the President's right to appoint the Mayor of Buenos Aires, and with the election of

Fernando de la Rúa Fernando de la Rúa (15 September 19379 July 2019) was an Argentine politician and a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) political party who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1999 to 21 December 2001. De la Rúa was born in ...

as the city's first directly elected mayor on June 30, 1996, an assembly was chosen for the purpose of drafting a new municipal constitution. Approved on October 1, the document created a city legislature in lieu of the city council, and increased its membership to 60 (elected for four year terms via

party-list voting A party-list system is a type of electoral system that formally involves political parties in the electoral process, usually to facilitate multi-winner elections. In party-list systems, parties put forward a list of candidates, the party-list who s ...

, as outlined in the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest- ...

, with half the seats at stake every two years).

Overview

The body is led by the mayor's lieutenant, the Vice Chief of Government (''Vicejefe de Gobierno''), who acts as President of the Legislature. They are assisted by three Vice-Presidents and Parliamentary, Administrative and Coordinating Secretaries.

Gabriela Michetti Marta Gabriela Michetti Illia (; born 28 May 1965) is an Argentine politician and was Vice President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019 during Mauricio Macri's administration. Before her, the only woman to serve as vice president was Isabel Perón. ...

of the center-right

Republican Proposal Republican Proposal ( es, link=no, Propuesta Republicana) is a centre-right political party in Argentina. It is usually referred to by its abbreviation, PRO. PRO was formed as an electoral alliance in 2005, but was transformed into a national p ...

(PRO) party became the first disabled individual to occupy the post of President of the Legislature in 2007; she left this post ahead of the June 2009 legislative elections, where she won a seat in the

Argentine Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( es, Cámara de Diputados de la Nación), officially the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress ( es, Congreso de la Nación). It is made up of 257 ...

. The post is currently occupied by Vice Chief of Government Diego Santilli of PRO.

Current composition

The body is composed of 23 committees, and the 60 legislators belong to 16 parties (a number of which form part of coalitions). The largest party currently seating in the Legislature is Mayor

Horacio Rodriguez Larreta The name Horacio is found sporadically throughout all Latinamerica. Historical Figures *Horacio Quiroga, an Uruguayan author and writer. *Horacio Carochi, an Italian Jesuit priest and grammarian *Horacio Pagani (auto executive) (born 1955), Argen ...

Vamos Juntos ''Vamos juntos'' is a Mexican telenovela produced by Irene Sabido for Televisa in 1979. Cast *Silvia Derbez as Lupe Pistolas *Anita Blanch as Rosa *Macaria as María Elena *Carlos Piñar as Claudio *Enrique Rocha as Juan Cristobal *Paola Jim� ...

(JxC) with 26 seats, joined in 2019 by

Martin Lousteau Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and

Roy Cortina Robert Vincent "Roy" Cortina (b. March 14, 1964 in New York City) is an American-born Argentine politician, president of the Socialist Party in the City of Buenos Aires. Since December 2015 he has served as the 3rd Vice President of the Buenos A ...

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, adding 9 and 2 seats respectively for a total of 37 deputies under the

Juntos por el Cambio ( en, Together for Change) is a centre-right political coalition in Argentina. It was created in 2015 as Cambiemos ( en, Let's Change), and renamed in 2019. It is composed of Republican Proposal, Radical Civic Union, Civic Coalition ARI and U ...

banner. The largest opposition block is Matías Lammens's

Frente de Todos The Frente de Todos (translated as "Everyone's Front") is a coalition of Peronist and Kirchnerist political parties in Argentina formed to support President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Kirchner. Fernández won the 2019 gene ...

with 17 seats, followed by the

Workers' Left Front The Workers' Left Front – Unity ( es, Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores – Unidad, FIT-U) is an alliance of initially three Trotskyist parties in Argentina formed to fight a number of elections in 2011, announced at a press conference ...

(FIT) with 3 seats. The single-member blocks of

Roberto Lavagna Roberto Lavagna (born 24 March 1942) is an Argentine economist and politician who was Minister of Economy and Production from April 27, 2002 until November 28, 2005. Despite the fact that he only garnered 6% of the votes in 2019 presidential e ...

Federal Consensus Federal Consensus ( es, Consenso Federal, CF) was a electoral coalition in Argentina formed to support the alliance between Roberto Lavagna and Juan Manuel Urtubey in 2019 general election. It is formed by dissidents of the Justicialist Party, t ...

Luis Zamora's

Self-determination and Freedom Self-determination and Freedom ( es, Autodeterminación y Libertad, AyL) is a leftist political party in Argentina, with Luis Zamora as its most prominent member. Many of its leading members were part of the Trotskyist Movement for Socialism ...

, (AyL) and

Margarita Stolbizer Margarita Stolbizer (born 17 March 1955) is an Argentine lawyer and politician. Originally a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), she founded her own party, Generation for a National Encounter (GEN) in 2007. She has been a member of the Arge ...

Generation for a National Encounter Generation for a National Encounter ( es, Generación para un Encuentro Nacional), sometimes known as the GEN Party ( es, Partido GEN) or simply as GEN, is a centre-left political party in Argentina. It was founded in 2007 by Margarita Stolbizer ...

complete the 60 seats.

Represented political groups

List of current legislators (2021–2023 term)

;Notes

Past legislatures

2019–2021 term

;Notes

References

External links

*
Datasheet at Towerclocks.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buenos Aires City Legislature City councils 1882 establishments in Argentina Politics of Argentina Buenos Aires