(Buenos Aires) Argentine President Javier Milei assured Sunday that he had no intention of closing public universities, five days after the sector’s largest demonstration against his government’s austerity policy.
“We never thought about closing public universities, we never thought about stopping funding them,” Mr. Milei said on the LN+ television channel, repeating his remarks made earlier on Rivadavia radio.
“Our opponents invented a lie and are attacking us based on this lie,” said the president.
“Since those who pay taxes fund public universities, we demand audits. It’s been ten years since there was one. Who doesn’t want an audit of expenses? The thief,” he added.
Javier Milei, an ultraliberal economist, became Argentina’s president in December with a promise to bring down triple-digit inflation, which stood at 287.9% over 12 months in March according to the National Institute of statistical.
On Tuesday April 23, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly students, graduates and academics, demonstrated in the capital Buenos Aires and the country’s main cities, joined in particular by unions and opposition parties.
Argentine universities declared themselves in a state of budgetary emergency after the government decided in 2024 to allocate them the same envelope as in 2023 despite inflation.
According to the presidential spokesperson, Mr. Milei agreed, in the face of criticism, to “increase operating expenses by 70% in March, and again by 70% in May” and to pay an extraordinary allocation to hospitals. academics.
Javier Milei, whose policy is mainly based on cost cutting, estimated that monthly inflation in Argentina could fall below 10% in April.