Tens of thousands demonstrate against Milei cuts to university budgets

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets Tuesday in Buenos Aires to protest libertarian President Javier Milei's budget cuts to public universities, less than 24 hours after the government announced further cutbacks are coming.

The ‘Marcha Federal Universitaria’ – the fourth such demonstration in support of state universities since Milei took office in December 2023 – came a day after officials announced further reductions in state education and health spending.

Crowds of students, lecturers and other demonstrators filled the central Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, and the surrounding streets. They carried banners bearing slogans such as “The ignorant want us ignorant.”

Large crowds were seen in several other cities nationwide, including Córdoba, Mendoza and Tucuman.

“I’m here to defend public education,” said 18-year-old literature student Renata López, as she rallied outside the presidential palace in the capital. 

She carried a copy of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, a novel that depicts a future dystopian society that has outlawed books.

The novel "speaks to our current reality," López said. "Defunding education isn't something alien, it isn't dystopian. It's something that's happening."

A document read out from a stage at the Buenos Aires protest asked the court to "stand with us and listen to the outcry."

"Public university is a source of pride for our country," said 35-year-old Ludmila, a nutrition teacher, in Buenos Aires. "The fact that everyone can attend, regardless of their social class, is something we must defend."

University groups are demanding the implementation of a law requiring the government to guarantee funding for the university system and adjust it in line with inflation.

Initially approved by Congress in 2025, Milei later vetoed the legislation, arguing that it contradicted his government's policy of balancing the budget.

The government has requested an intervention from the Supreme Court, which is not under any deadline to issue a ruling.

“The only law we are going to comply with is the budget law,” Deputy Public Universities Secretary Alejandro Álvarez told reporters on Monday.

“There is a genuine demand over salaries, which we can understand, but given the characteristics of the protest, it is being heavily influenced by politics,” he added.
Teachers’ unions said salaries have fallen by 40 percent in recent years and that hundreds of professors have resigned.

“I’ve suffered a 30 percent loss in purchasing power,” said Natalia, an administrative employee at the National University of Quilmes who declined to give her surname for fear of reprisals.

The Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences at University of Buenos Aires (UBA) has been on strike for three months. Officials at university hospitals warned they are on the verge of collapse.

The University of Buenos Aires estimated a turnout of 600,000 in the capital.

Police had not yet released a figure Tuesday evening.

In a statement, Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party described the rally as “opposition-led.”

“The National Government has fulfilled its obligations and has transferred the budget allocated to national universities for operating expenses on a monthly basis. Indeed, in the 2026 Budget, the allocation for universities increased to 4.8 trillion pesos in 2026,” it stated.

“The University Funding Act was suspended in its implementation by virtue of the provisions of Budget Act No. 24,629, given that those responsible for its enactment did not determine the sources of its funding in the National Congress, as its implementation amounts to a total expenditure of 1.9 trillion pesos,” it continued.

President Milei will not waver from his “unshakeable” commitment to maintaining fiscal balance, it added.

Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof, one of the leading opposition voices, was among those who attended the rally. In brief comments to the press, he accused the Milei administration of "beginning to destroy the future of the country."

“Javier Milei must understand that defending public universities is not just a demand from students and lecturers: it is a struggle of the entire Argentine people,” he said. 

“Over the past three years, many lecturers and researchers have had to leave their jobs due to the drastic drop in their salaries. This is the result of a national government that is determined to destroy the country’s future,” he added.

For Kicillof, “the President is attacking free and open universities because they are the best tool for upward social mobility that we have to build a fairer society with greater equality of opportunity”.

“We are supporting this nationwide march to defend the young men and women who want to study and dream of a better future for themselves and for all Argentines,” he said.

– TIMES/AFP/NA