On September 13, the Argentine legislature proposed a law updating the amount of money to be received by public universities following the rampant inflation the country has been suffering for years. Under his neoliberal plan to drastically reduce the state, Milei completely vetoed the law on October 3. However, it remained to be seen whether or not the veto would be ratified by the Senate.
To reject the presidential veto, the opposition needed two thirds of the total votes, something that seemed possible considering the enormous popular rejection that the law had aroused in the streets through massive marches and mobilizations of students, professors, and workers of public universities all over the country.
ESTUDIANTAZO CONTRA EL VETO
Hasta el momento, cerca de 50 universidades de toda la Argentina realizan tomas, asambleas o acciones diversas para rechazar el desfinanciamiento a la educación pública. pic.twitter.com/tuIeTWuffD
— Emergentes Medio (@emergentesmedio) October 10, 2024
On October 9, the day of the vote, several associations of students and professors protested at the entrance of the Argentine Congress (guarded by security forces) to demand that the deputies vote to improve the quality of public university education by rejecting the veto. Carlos de Feo, General Secretary of the National Federation of University Teachers, said “We found the Congress all fenced off, we did not come to throw stones at it, we came to exercise the legitimate right given to us by the Constitution to request and demand our representatives to make laws to serve the people and not the concentrated capital.”
However, the opposition did not manage to obtain the necessary votes to reject the veto. It only received 160 votes, against the 84 deputies who voted to maintain the presidential decision. Those who “gave a hand” to President Milei were the Republican Proposal (PRO) party of former President Mauricio Macri, four deputies from the Radical Civic Union (UCR) party, and some others from provincial parties. Following the decision, the legislator of the PRO, Ana Clara Romero, said that with the approval of the veto, “the public university is not at stake.”
After the decision of the Congress, there were some scuffles between some demonstrators rejecting the veto and militants of Milei’s party, Liberty Moves Forward (La Libertad Avanza). In addition, the large Argentine unions and trade unions linked to the universities announced a massive university strike to reject Milei’s neoliberal project. In a communiqué from the National Universities Union Front, it is stated that “We repudiate the deputies who voted against the popular mandate to defend the university… the popular will has been defrauded and democracy has yielded to the anti-republican management of governing by decree of the National Government.”
Hours before learning about the decision of the Congress, some students of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) took over several faculties to protest against the possible veto of the Senate, and their action has been emulated in other parts of the country. For now, it seems that the students and professors of the universities will not passively accept Milei’s veto, although they will have to show how long they can resist the possible responses of Milei’s administration, which in the last months of government, have not been the most “peaceful”.
