Mass protests in Argentina over Milei’s university funding cuts

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 chainsaw to state funding in a sharp break from what he describes as decades of reckless spending that spawned corruption under his left-leaning predecessors.