Milei vetoes law despite huge march in support of state universities

President Javier Milei has struck down a law improving funding for state universities, just hours after huge crowds of Argentines took to the streets across the country in support of higher education.

In a decree published in the government’s Official Gazette on Thursday, Milei struck down a law passed by both chambers of Congress that would increase funding for public higher education institutions and boost salaries for staff.

“It is appropriate for the National Executive branch to resort to the constitutional tool of a total veto of the legislative initiative that it has been referred,” read the decree, published just after midnight.

It added that the law, which aims to improve the salaries of teachers and workers, had been sent back to Congress.

Several thousand Argentines joined major student-led protests nationwide on Wednesday to challenge the Milei government’s cuts to free university education.

The second large-scale demonstration in six months in defence of Argentina’s cherished public university system was called over Milei's plan to veto the law guaranteeing universities' funding.

It angered Milei, a self-professed "anarcho-capitalist" who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the budget deficit.

While inflation has fallen, his spending cuts have been blamed for a surge in poverty levels, which affected more than half the population in the first six months of his presidency.

The new law would have granted universities regular funding increases and given teachers and staff salary increases to counteract the effects of inflation, which reached an annual 236 percent in August.

Milei had vowed to strike down the law, as he has done with other laws he opposes, calling the salary increases for teachers "unjustified" and lawmakers "fiscal degenerates."

His veto could however be overruled by a two-thirds majority in Congress, where his party is in a minority.

Large crowds

A huge crowd packed the vast square outside Congress in central Buenos Aires on Wednesday, where demonstrators waved placards, danced and chanted in support of state universities.

"No to vetoing university funding!" read one poster carrying the image of Mafalda, the irreverent cartoon icon, a symbol of rebellion in Argentina. 

"Education cannot be vetoed, education must be respected," said another.

Marchers gathered at Plaza Houssay, before walking to the Plaza del Congreso, where the main event was staged. Various speakers addressed the crowd, with a document read out by Piera Fernández, president of the Argentine University Federation.

"Cuts seriously affect Argentina's scientific and technological system,” she said, warning that "excellence in academic training” was being put “at risk.”

"Students from all over Argentina are asking you, in a cry for help to save the system: enact the University Financing Law!” she asked Milei.

Ana Hoqui, a 30-year-old psychology graduate from a village 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Buenos Aires was among the demonstrators. 

She said she came to show support for the public system, which helped her study medicine.

"My parents sacrificed a lot so that I could come and study at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). I could never have trained without the free, public university system," she explained. 
"That's why I came to defend it, because I feel it's in danger."

Protests were also held in several cities nationwide. Large crowds were seen in Córdoba, where people marched through the streets.

In April, hundreds of thousands of Argentines took to the streets in a first pivotal show of anger over Milei's policies after the government froze university funding for 2024 at the same level as 2023, despite persistently high inflation.

The government responded by increasing funding for university hospitals and infrastructure.

The Milei administration spent much of the week attempting to paint the 'Marcha Federal Universitaria' as political, despite widespread support for public education across various groupings. 

A number of opposition leaders, including former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, ex-economy minister Sergio Massa and former Buenos Aires City mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, were among those to show support for the rally and the state university system, either with a post on social media or appearance at the rally.

The march also had the support of the CGT, Argentina’s largest umbrella union grouping, which took part in the protest in "defence of education and the public university ."

While the protests were ongoing, Milei met with disgraced Wall Street trader Jordan Belfort, whose corrupt, excess-driven lifestyle was depicted in Martin Scorsese's "Wolf of Wall Street."

Belfort posted a picture of the meeting on X, captioned "two passionate advocates for free markets and individual liberty."

– TIMES/PERFIL/NA