Hundreds of thousands of Argentines take to the streets to defend public universities | World and Science

With books in the air, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated this Tuesday, 23rd, in Argentina against the funding cuts for public universities, in the largest demonstration ever to take place against the adjustment policy promoted by the ultra-liberal president Javier Milei.

Between 100,000 people, according to the police, and half a million, according to the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), gathered in the Argentine capital. Tens of thousands more protested in interior cities.

The Plaza de Mayo was the epicenter of the call, which took over the neighboring streets. “Education saves us and makes us free. We call on Argentine society to defend it”, said student and president of the Argentine University Federation, Piera Fernández.

In the country’s main cities, students and professors from 57 national public universities marched “in defense of free public university education”.

Universities declared a budget emergency after the government decided to extend the same budget received in 2023 to this year, despite 12-month inflation, which reached almost 290% in March.

“Don’t expect the exit through public spending”, warned Milei yesterday, when announcing on national television that public accounts recorded a surplus in the first quarter, although at the expense of thousands of layoffs and the collapse of economic activity and consumption.

Unions and opposition parties joined the call, and university professors followed up with a strike.

In the city of Córdoba, home to the prestigious university of the same name, tens of thousands of students also filled the streets.

Below the poverty line

Last week, Milei agreed to “increase operating expenses by 70% in March and another 70% in May”, in addition to an extraordinary sum for university hospitals, with which the government considers that the discussion “is resolved”, he said this Tuesday the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni.

Operating expenses exclude teaching staff salaries, which represent 90% of the university budget.

“Of the four categories of teachers, three fell below the poverty line,” said the rector of the National University of San Luis, Víctor Moriñigo, when reporting a teaching salary scale whose floor is 100 thousand pesos (587 reais) per month. Additionally, energy rates rose 500% this month, leaving universities on the brink of paralysis, according to officials.

“At the rate at which they are giving us money, we will only be able to operate for two to three months”, warned the rector of UBA, Ricardo Gelpi.

Milei questioned the transparency of the use of funds and the quality of teaching, suggesting that public universities “are used for shady deals and indoctrination”, he published in X over the weekend.

“We cannot doubt 200 years of history. Even with a very low budget, UBA is among the three best in Latin America”, noted the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Luis Brusco.

Around 2.2 million people study in Argentina’s public university system, chosen by 80% of students compared to private institutions, in a country where almost half of the 47 million inhabitants live in poverty.