Demonstrators clashed with police in Argentina’s capital on Thursday during a major protest against higher education budget cuts under President Javier Milei.
The main rally outside parliament, attended by thousands of university students and staff, trade unionists and opposition activists, remained peaceful. However, violence broke out when dozens of mostly hooded protesters broke away from the crowd and threw stones and other projectiles at police, reports AFP.
Police responded with tear gas and water cannons during the confrontation, which lasted about an hour. At least 25 people were arrested and eight police officers were injured, according to sources at the National Security Ministry cited by AFP.
Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva accused the violent demonstrators of attempting to “sow chaos”.
“The right to protest is not a right to exercise violence,” Monteoliva said on X.
Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Adrian Ravier said on Tuesday that the legislation had been “suspended” while the administration pursued legal action.
Thursday’s demonstration was the fifth major protest over the higher education funding crisis since Milei took office in late 2023.
The rally followed several court rulings directing the government to comply with a 2025 law requiring increased financial support for public universities.
The 2025 University Funding Law mandates inflation-linked salary increases retroactive to December 2023, the restoration of student scholarships and increased funding for university operations.
Congress passed the legislation, but Milei vetoed it. Parliament subsequently overruled his veto.
However, the administration has refused to implement the law despite several judicial decisions, including a Supreme Court ruling in June ordering the government to comply.
“We are demanding that they pay us what they owe us,” Francisca Staiti, general secretary of the teachers’ union Conadu Historica, told AFP.
During the protest, a young female demonstrator held a placard reading, “Let’s occupy the streets, like in France!”, referring to ongoing mass student protests in France over classroom conditions.
Victoria Coronel, a student at the University of Matanza in Buenos Aires province, also voiced her concerns, saying that “broken things don’t get fixed”.
“(Teachers) leave us because their salaries are not enough,” Coronel told AFP.
Milei, a libertarian president, took office promising to revive Argentina’s struggling economy and curb runaway inflation by reducing the welfare state.
His deep public spending cuts have heavily affected public hospitals, universities and pensioners, while significantly reducing inflation.
Milei has defended his vetoes of inflation-linked spending increases by arguing that “there is no money” to fund them, having made balanced budgets a central commitment of his presidency.
However, public spending on universities fell by 41 per cent in real terms during the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2023, according to figures from the Centre for National Economic Research at the University of Buenos Aires.
