Hundreds of thousands of people They demonstrated on Tuesday in Buenos Aires. capital of Argentina, for a public university and against lack of funding these centers by the government of the ultra-liberal Javier Milei, which became biggest mobilization against him for now.

They attended the demonstration opposition political parties, unions and public organizations, including leaders and high-ranking officials, and which ended in the Plaza de Mayo, in front of Casa Rosada, seat of government.

Although police estimate the number of participants at 150 thousand, The protest organizers assured that there were more than half a million of them; More than 50,000 people protested in the city of Cordoba and about 20,000 in Mendoza, although there were other “mass” mobilizations in Mar de Plata and Rosario, according to the Argentine newspaper. Clarion.

Mobilizations, which passed without incident, were announced Interuniversity Council– consists of representatives of the governing councils of 66 public universities, the Trade Union Front of National Universities and the Federation of Universities of Argentina.

“We have reached March 2024 with a spending budget at the level of September 2022. The 70 percent increase in these items planned for the month of March and not yet paid, plus the recent announcement in this competition of an additional 70 percent. , make up a stimulus that is still not enough since inflation was 300 percent over the same period.“, the organizers said.

University of Buenos Aires (UBA), free university where five Nobel laureates and 17 presidents were trained, He noted that the government has practically frozen the budget, despite the fact that last year the country recorded inflation at 287.9%.

These protests were caused by the mandate of Miley, who assures that state universities “inspire” and even questioned their financial transparency after being convinced that they were not subject to audit.

“A country that does not invest in science renounces its sovereignty“Said Piera Fernandez, head of the Argentine Universities Federation (FUA), at the closing of the event.

“All the problems we have They are solved with more education and more public universities.“,” he emphasized and pointed out, “that “education saves us and makes us free. “We call on Argentine society to protect it.”

The University of Buenos Aires, which is ranked among the top 100 in the world by QS and has 110 undergraduate courses, six high schools and five public hospitals, denounced thatBudget cuts will affect teaching, research and health care.

During his election campaign Far-right Miley has vowed to use a “chainsaw” to cut government spending and achieve fiscal balance. in the midst of a severe economic crisis, and in recent weeks he has repeated that public universities are sites of “socialist” indoctrination designed to justify budget cuts.

But the public and free university is one of the institutions most recognized among Argentines, lining dozens of streets in the center of Buenos Aires and the country’s main cities with Argentine and flags. slogans in defense of education such as “UBA is not for sale” and “Let’s protect science.”

“I came to defend the state university because my principles are very far from the principles of the current government“, said Reuters Pedro Palm, an 82-year-old architect, graduated from UBA.

“We will have to stop working (…) We’re currently about 60, 70% below budget.“What did they give us,” Ricardo Gelpi, rector of the prestigious UBA, which has more than 300,000 students, told local radio station Radio Rivadavia.

In an attempt to limit the scale of protest – which was replicated in other important cities of the country – presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni defended the government.

You might be interested > Miley brags about his first surplus and attributes it to a “chainsaw.”

“Education is one of the fundamental pillars of our ideology. We are far from wanting to close universities“He emphasized this at a morning press conference, where he added that the government also has no plans to pay for university education.

The demonstration, joined by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) – the main trade union center of the country – along with other trade associations, crossed the city center of Buenos Aires and will end around 19:00 local time with an event in the historic Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Government House.

(With information from Europe Press And Reuters)