Hundreds of thousands of Argentines took to the streets to express their outrage over budget cuts to public higher education imposed by President Javier Milei, according to protest organizers.
Joined by professors, parents and alumni of the 57 public universities of this South American country in the grip of an economic crisis, the students rose up on Tuesday “to defend free public university education”, they said. -they declared.
Unions, opposition parties and private universities supported protests in Buenos Aires and other major cities, such as Córdoba, in one of the largest demonstrations ever against austerity measures introduced since the Milei came to power in December.
Police said around 100,000 people attended in the capital alone, while organizers put the number at nearly half a million, bringing the city center to a standstill for hours.
A teachers’ union reported up to a million protesters across the country.
Pablo Vicenti, 22, a third-year medical student, told Agence French-Presse in Buenos Aires that he was outraged by the government’s “brutal attack” on the university system.
“They want to defund and pretend there is no money. There is, but they choose not to spend it on public education,” he said.
Milei won elections in November, promising to chainsaw government spending and reduce the budget deficit to zero.
To this end, his government has cut subsidies for transport, fuel and energy, even as workers have lost a fifth of their purchasing power.
Thousands of civil servants lost their jobs and Milei faced numerous protests against austerity.
His government described Tuesday’s protests as “political.”
