Mass protests in Argentina decry Milei's funding cuts to prized public universities

BUENOS AIRES: Tens of thousands of Argentines flooded the streets of major cities nationwide on Tuesday to protest funding cuts by libertarian president Javier Milei to the public university system that represents a near-universal point of pride in this crisis-prone country.

Vast crowds in downtown Buenos Aires marched toward the government headquarters to denounce budget shortfalls eroding the financial foundation of the country's higher education.

Argentina's public university system, a cornerstone of its well-educated workforce cherished by its large middle class, has been tuition-free since 1949 and produced five Nobel Prize laureates.

Congress passed a law last year to fund universities' operational costs and raise teacher salaries in line with high inflation. But the government has not implemented it as it challenges the legislation in court.

Like his powerful backer and ally US president Donald Trump, Milei routinely attacks university campuses as bastions of "woke" indoctrination.

He has slashed public education funding as part of his plan to take a chain saw to state funding in a sharp break from what he describes as decades of reckless spending that spawned corruption under his left-leaning predecessors.

Tuesday's protest gathered people of all ages and political persuasions as Milei faces declining approval ratings over slumping economic activity, falling wages, and climbing unemployment.

A recent series of corruption scandals has also struck a nerve, with fallout particularly growing from an investigation into lavish spending by Milei's close ally, Cabinet chief Manuel Adorni, that appears inconsistent with his modest public salary and declared assets.

"How much does Adorni cost us?" read one of several student protest signs alluding to the alleged misuse of public funds.

Milei's undersecretary for university policies, Alejandro Alvarez, criticised Tuesday's march as "completely political" and said the government had compensated universities for higher operating costs, marginal increases that unions have rejected as insufficient.

In seeking to annul the legislation, Milei's administration argues that it fails to specify how the state will supply the mandatory funding increases in a time of harsh fiscal austerity.

The case is expected to go to the Supreme Court. Student protesters on Tuesday called on the nation's highest court to "listen to the outcry throughout the country's public squares."

Since Milei took power in late 2023, university professors' paychecks have declined by roughly 33 percent after accounting for stubborn inflation, according to the main teachers' federation.

The rector of the prestigious University of Buenos Aires, Ricardo Gelpi, said the steep losses in purchasing power has driven at least 580 research professors in the engineering and science departments to ditch the public system for private universities or other better-paying jobs.

"It's very clear this government is determined to defund public education," said Sol Muniz, 24, a law student at the University of Buenos Aires at the march. "University is a source of pride for us. It is the best thing we have."