Thousands in Argentina Protest Javier Milei’s Cuts to Public University System
“Like his powerful backer and ally U.S. President Donald Trump, Milei routinely attacks university campuses as bastions of ‘woke’ indoctrination.”
Trump should do the same thing here. Let people protest. We will be better off as a nation.
The Associated Press reports:
Mass protests in Argentina decry Milei’s funding cuts to prized public universities
Tens of thousands of Argentines flooded the streets of major cities nationwide on Tuesday to protest funding cuts by libertarian President Javier Milei to the public university system that represents a near-universal point of pride in this crisis-prone country.
Vast crowds in downtown Buenos Aires marched toward the government headquarters to denounce budget shortfalls eroding the financial foundation of the country’s higher education. Argentina’s public university system, a cornerstone of its well-educated workforce cherished by its large middle class, has been tuition-free since 1949 and produced five Nobel Prize laureates.
Congress passed a law last year to fund universities’ operational costs and raise teacher salaries in line with high inflation. But the government has not implemented it as it challenges the legislation in court.
Like his powerful backer and ally U.S. President Donald Trump, Milei routinely attacks university campuses as bastions of “woke” indoctrination. He has slashed public education funding as part of his plan to take a chain saw to state funding in a sharp break from what he describes as decades of reckless spending that spawned corruption under his left-leaning predecessors.
Tuesday’s protest gathered people of all ages and political persuasions as Milei faces declining approval ratings over slumping economic activity, falling wages and climbing unemployment. A recent series of corruption scandals has also struck a nerve, with fallout particularly growing from an investigation into lavish spending by Milei’s close ally, Cabinet chief Manuel Adorni, that appears inconsistent with his modest public salary and declared assets.
“How much does Adorni cost us?” read one of several student protest signs alluding to the alleged misuse of public funds.
Milei’s undersecretary for university policies, Alejandro Álvarez, criticized Tuesday’s march as “completely political” and said the government had compensated universities for higher operating costs — marginal increases that unions have rejected as insufficient.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
“How much does Adorni cost us?”
Less than your souls.
These protests demonstrate how socialism addicted the people to someone else paying for things. It works until you run out of other people’s money. Sounds like what is happening in Argentina now. How does DJTrump and DEI become a basis of street protests in another country. I guess the Argentine government could raise taxes to pay for what the protestors want (free universities) but nothing is free. Some one or everyone pays for it.
Given that this is Argentina and that pro-corruption Peronists have been behind every other anti-Milei protest, I would take these news reports with a huge grain of salt.