BUENOS AIRES, May 15, 2025 (Reuters) — President Javier Milei vetoed a congressional bill Tuesday that would have restored 810 billion pesos ($890 million) in public university funding, triggering immediate protests at campuses across Argentina and the largest student mobilization since the 2001 economic crisis, with demonstrations spreading to 23 provinces within 24 hours.
An estimated 300,000 students, faculty, and supporters marched in Buenos Aires alone on Wednesday, filling Avenida 9 de Julio from the Obelisk to Avenida Belgrano. Simultaneous demonstrations were reported in Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza, La Plata, Tucumán, Salta, and at least 18 other cities. At the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), the country's largest university with 320,000 students, protesters occupied the historic Law School building on Avenida Figueroa Alcorta and blocked traffic for eight hours.
University leaders addressed the crowd, calling the veto an attack on the most prestigious public university in Latin America and accusing the government of systematic defunding while spending on presidential travel and vanity projects.
The vetoed bill, which passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support in April — 198-59 in the Chamber of Deputies and 48-24 in the Senate — would have guaranteed public universities funding at 2023 levels adjusted for inflation. Milei's administration had already reduced the education ministry's budget by 32% in real terms since taking office, forcing universities to delay maintenance, freeze 340 faculty hiring positions nationwide, and suspend research grants affecting 1,200 projects.
In a signing statement released at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Milei called the bill "a fiscal trap" that would "reward the indoctrination factories that produced Argentina's economic decline." He argued that universities should generate their own revenue through research partnerships, technology licensing, and tuition for non-poor students rather than depend on state transfers.
The veto was Milei's 34th since taking office — more than any Argentine president in a comparable period since the return of democracy in 1983. Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds majority in both chambers, but the process requires a joint session that opposition leaders said they would demand within 10 days.
The protests pose a political challenge for Milei. His approval rating among voters aged 18-29 has fallen to 38%, down from 52% at the start of 2025, according to a Poliarquía poll published this week. Students and young workers are a key voting bloc in October's midterm elections, and their mobilization could energize the fragmented opposition.
Political analyst Sergio Berensztein said education is the one issue that can unite the fragmented opposition. Milei picked a fight with a sector that knows how to organize, has time to protest, and votes in high numbers — the voters who will determine whether Milei gains seats in October or loses his reform momentum.
