Argentinian government's austerity plan hits universities and provokes student protests

(23 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buenos Aires - 23 April 2024
1. Various of protesters holding banners
2. Stage with people holding a banner
3. Various of protesters holding banners
STORYLINE:
Protesters took the streets of Buenos Aires to protest against budget cuts in education by the administration of President Javier Milei.
Milei has tried to dismiss the worsening budget crisis at public universities as politics as usual, a contest with his leftist political rivals who hold sway over liberal campuses.
In his single-minded drive to reach zero deficit, Milei is slashing spending across Argentina - shuttering ministries, defunding cultural centers, laying off state workers and cutting subsidies. He promises the public it's worth the pain, announcing Monday the government achieved Argentina’s first quarterly fiscal surplus since 2008.
But it's not all about the money.
In branding universities as bastions of socialism where far-left professors indoctrinate their students, Milei has also shed light on the wider ideological battle at play in Argentina, where all public education is free.
Crowds of university students and professors walked out of class Tuesday and joined demonstrators flooding the center of the city, including members of workers’ unions and opposition political parties.
Many privately financed schools closed in solidarity.
Protests also gripped other cities in Argentina.
“The university will defend itself!” students shouted.
President Milei came to power last December brandishing a chainsaw to symbolize the slashing he planned for the Argentina's government.
Inheriting an economy broken by years of chronic overspending and suffocating international debt, he has taken to repeating a simple catchphrase to compatriots reeling from surging inflation and the currency's dramatic devaluation: “There is no money.”
Overall, Argentina puts about 4.6% of its gross domestic product into education, and many Argentines regard free university as a national birthright.
International students don’t have pay tuition either, a policy that attracts legions of students from across Latin America and further afield - as well as growing criticism in the midst of the country's worst financial crisis in years.
Under increasing pressure from students and protestors, the government said late Monday it was sending some $24.5 million to public universities and another $12 million to keep medical centers operating.
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