Huge demonstrations have been held across Argentina to protest against education spending cuts. Students and university professors were joined by the country’s powerful trade unions and opposition political parties as hundreds of thousands rallied on Tuesday against the effect of President Javier Milei’s radical austerity measures on public universities. It was one of the largest in a series of protests the South American nation has seen since the far-right President took power in December.
Aerial footage showed a sea of people occupying the centre of Bueno Aries for hours. Similar scenes were witnessed in several other cities, with organisers calling for a pushback against budget cuts that they say have put universities on the verge of closure.
The University of Buenos Aires claimed that more than 500,000 people took part in the protest in the capital alone.
Milei had brandished a chainsaw during his election campaign to symbolise his wish to decimate public spending and shrink the government in the face of serious economic challenges. He has been shuttering ministries, defunding cultural centres, laying off state workers and cutting subsidies in a bid to right the economy.
On Monday, he defended his radical approach as he celebrated the country’s first quarterly fiscal surplus since 2008.
“We are making the impossible possible even with the majority of politics, unions, the media and most economic actors against us,” he declared. (Aljazeera)
