Hundreds of thousands march in Argentina over university cuts
BUENOS AIRES—Hundreds of thousands of Argentines took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Tuesday in an antigovernment march against budget cuts to public universities, the biggest protest yet against President Javier Milei’s painful austerity measures.
The demonstrations are the latest example of rising tension over spending cuts that are helping undo a deep fiscal deficit but causing hardship in the real economy.
In the union-backed marches in the capital and beyond, banners were held aloft in the southern autumn sunshine reading “Defend the public universities,” “Studying is a right,” and “Up with the budget, down with Milei’s plan.”
“I’m here to defend the public universities,” said Pedro Palm, an 82-year-old architect who graduated from the prestigious University of Buenos Aires (UBA), which recently warned it might have to shut its doors after its budget was slashed.
‘Chainsaw’ budget cuts
Milei, dealing with an inherited economic crisis after years of government overspending, is employing “chainsaw” budget cuts that helped the state post three months of fiscal surpluses at the start of the year.
But the cuts have squeezed the public sector badly. Argentina’s public universities like UBA, which offer free undergraduate education, rely heavily on government funding.
“Education is one of the fundamental pillars of our ideology. We have no desire to close the universities,” said presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni, defending the government’s stance and calling for a peaceful march.
Ivan Massari, a biology and genetics teacher, said free education must be defended because it was the best way to level society and create access to opportunities for all.
“Public education is a tool for social transformation,” he said. “It is the opportunity for a person to be able to develop themselves, to be able to contribute to society, and to be able to build their future.”
Milei won elections last November vowing to take a chainsaw to public spending and reduce the budget deficit to zero.
‘Political’
To that end, his government has slashed subsidies for transport, fuel and energy even as wage-earners have lost a fifth of their purchasing power.
Thousands of public servants have lost their jobs, and Milei has faced numerous antiausterity protests.
His government dismissed Tuesday’s protests as “political.”
Universities declared a financial emergency after the government approved a 2024 budget the same as the one for 2023, despite annual inflation approaching 290 percent.
On top of that, higher learning institutions say a near 500-percent monthly increase in energy costs has brought them to their knees.
“At the rate at which they are funding us, we can only function between two or three more months,” said UBA rector Ricardo Gelpi.
As the ire has built, Milei conceded a 70-percent increase in funding for public universities’ operating expenses in March, to be followed by another 70 percent in May and a one-off grant to university hospitals.
Operating expenses exclude teacher salaries, which make up about 90 percent of a university budget.
In a post on X over the weekend, Milei called into question how public universities spend their funds, and said the institutions “are used for shady business and to indoctrinate.” —reports from REUTERS, AFP
