Hundreds of thousands of Argentines take to the streets to defend the public university

(Buenos Aires) Hundreds of thousands of Argentines, students in the forefront, demonstrated on Tuesday in Buenos Aires and in the provinces against the austerity policy of the ultraliberal government of Javier Milei and “in defense of free public universities”, marches denounced as “political” by the executive.

In the capital, the mobilization, probably the largest since the start of the Milei presidency in December, brought together “between 100,000 and 150,000” people, according to a police source, and half a million, according to the University of Buenos Aires. Areas (UBA). A teachers’ union reported a million protesters across the country.

In Buenos Aires, students, parents, teachers, university agents, but also unions and members of opposition parties, paralyzed the center of Buenos Aires all afternoon, near the Parliament, until the Place de May, seat of the presidency 2 kilometers away, crowded with people at the end of the day, noted AFP.

Other gatherings in the provinces mobilized the country’s sixty public universities, which were joined by private institutes. In Cordoba (center), seat of the oldest university in the country founded at the beginning of the 17th century^e century, the procession brought together tens of thousands of people.

In Buenos Aires, in a festive atmosphere, students symbolically brandished a book at arm’s length, denouncing “a brutal attack” against the university, as Pablo Vicenti, a 22-year-old medical student, deplored to AFP: “They want cut him off by pretending there is no money. There is, yes, but they choose not to spend it on public education.”

Public universities, which welcome more than 2.2 million students, say they are “in a budgetary emergency” since the government decided to maintain the 2023 budget for the 2024 academic year (which began in March), despite inflation of 288% over twelve months. And this within the framework of all-out budgetary austerity, to aim for a “zero deficit” at the end of the year, the objective of the Milei government, and to tame inflation.

“Indoctrination” or excellence?

For several establishments, this is a threat of paralysis, and certain sections of the prestigious UBA have recently implemented emergency savings: unlit common areas, restricted use of elevators, reduced library hours, etc.

The Faculty of Exact Sciences of the UBA, which notably trained the 1984 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology Cesar Milstein, has set up an online countdown until the day its 2024 budget is exhausted. At the time of the protest on Tuesday, he had 37 days, 9 hours and 15 minutes remaining.

The major union center CGT joined the protest, as well as radical left organizations and opposition politicians, giving way to the executive’s accusation of “political demonstration”. Milei added fuel to the fire, accusing certain public universities of being places of left-wing “indoctrination”.

The Undersecretary of State for Universities, Alejandro Alvarez, warned the demonstrators and their supporters. “Let them do what they want, but as long as Javier Milei is president, the public money that goes to Universities will be AUDITTED […] we are introducing an inspection and an audit that did not exist,” he said on X.

Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni stressed Monday that Argentine public education has in the past been “an educational beacon in America” ​​but that “for decades the university has had serious problems […] and plunging completion rates.”

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

Mr. Adorni also recalled an agreement a few days ago to increase the operating costs of universities in two stages, +70% in March, then +70% in May. Far from inflation, but now a “settled discussion”, according to him.

“Don’t hope for an outcome on the side of public spending,” Milei warned Monday evening, trumpeting a budget surplus on 1^er quarter 2024, unprecedented since 2008, thanks to austerity. “Our plan is working,” he boasted.

“All our problems are solved with more education and public universities […] Education saves us and sets us free. We call on Argentine society to defend it,” a student read to the crowd in Place de Mayo at the end of the rally.