University students, staff, supporters march to challenge Milei's austerity measures

University students, staff and supporters of the state university system are demonstrating on Wednesday against cutbacks introduced by Javier Milei's government, which is determined to veto a law recently passed by Congress that seeks to improve funding for higher education institutions.

Hours before the call, scheduled for 17H00 (20H00 GMT), bustling columns of students began to arrive at the railway terminals of the capital.

The protest is in front of the National Congress in Buenos Aires, though the scenes will be replicated in cities nationwide.

The government described the march as ‘political’ and the demands for an increase in teachers' salaries as “unjustified.”

The protests come amid a marked decline in the president's popularity, according to recent polls.

The rally, supported by unions and social organisations, focuses on a law passed on September 13 that raises the salaries of teachers and public university workers to counter the impact of 236 percent year-on-year inflation in August.

Milei threatened a ‘total veto’ after its congressional approval. The president has until Thursday to reject the law.

The march intends to put pressure on lawmakers not to ratify the president's veto.

It can be overturned, though the bar is high.

Milei called lawmakers "fiscal degenerates"’ for approving the law, whose fiscal impact was estimated at 0.14 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

"What we are against is Congress passing laws that do not have an allocated budget line, that is, that cannot be financed," said Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni on Monday.

In any case, the government does not seem to have the necessary support in Congress to make the veto stick, as it did with a bill to update pensions to mitigate the loss of purchasing power due to inflation.

On Tuesday, police placed fences 100 metres around Congress to prevent the passage of demonstrators.

By midday Wednesday, they were already starting to crowd the square.

"There is a clear directive: do not go beyond or try to enter Congress. When they do, the police react. Because we want order," warned Security Minister Patricia Bullrich.

The protesters are seeking to repeat the massive pro-state education demonstration of April 23, the largest so far against Milei's policies, after which the government boosted funding for infrastructure and university hospitals.

Students and professors fear that the situation will affect the quality of education at the public university system, the pride of Argentines and the educator of five Nobel Prize laureates.

At the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires, students have unfurled a huge banner reading "Your future is at risk."

– TIMES/AFP