Argentine university funding march ends in clashes with police in Buenos Aires

Centre · 2Thousands of students, teachers, university staff, trade unionists and opposition activists marched in Buenos Aires on Thursday 15 October 2026 to demand that President Javier Milei's government implement the law on public university funding. 1 2 Centre · 1AFP reported that the main demonstration stayed peaceful, but dozens of mostly hooded people broke away and threw stones and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon. 1 Left · 1Al Jazeera, reporting from Buenos Aires, said the protest was meant to be peaceful but turned violent: police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters threw rocks, at least 25 people were detained, and several others, including members of the security forces, were injured. 3

Centre · 1Anadolu Agency, citing local media, said police used tear gas, and that authorities deployed security forces around Congress, erecting barriers and restricting traffic. 2 Centre · 2It was the fifth Federal University March, and the fifth protest over university funding since Milei took office in December 2023. It was part of a nationwide day of demonstrations that included other cities. 1 2 Centre · 1The 2025 University Funding Law provides for inflation-linked salary increases dated to December 2023, restored student scholarships and more money for university operations. Milei vetoed it, parliament ratified it, and AFP says the government has never implemented it despite court rulings, including a Supreme Court decision in June. 1

Centre · 2Presidential spokesman Adrian Ravier said on Tuesday that the law was "suspended" while the government pursued legal action. Anadolu reports that the government appealed a recent court ruling ordering it to implement the law and update salaries and scholarships. 1 2 Left · 1Al Jazeera reports that a federal judge has begun fining the government 100,000 pesos (around $70) a day for failing to implement parts of the financing law, and that the government argues Congress failed to identify how the law and a disability emergency law would be financed. Another Al Jazeera item says Milei holds that implementing the law would threaten his budget-balancing plan. 3 4 Centre · 1AFP cites the University of Buenos Aires's Center for National Economic Research as finding that public spending on universities fell 41 percent in real terms in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2023. AFP also says Milei has raised education spending, but at a far smaller rate than inflation, as part of a zero-deficit austerity policy. 1

Centre · 1Protesters carried placards reading "Milei, uphold the law" and "Public university education is a right, not a privilege". Francisca Staiti, general secretary of the teachers' union Conadu Historica, told AFP: "We are demanding that they pay us what they owe us." 1 Left · 1In an Al Jazeera report from a University of Buenos Aires sciences faculty, students announced a one-day occupation of the building; a physics student said professors were leaving for private universities, and a chemistry professor said she earns around $700 a month. Al Jazeera also quotes Milei saying Argentina has had 27 consecutive months of growth, and notes that inflation has fallen to around 2 percent a month and that many Argentines still back his plan. 3 Centre · 1The march coincided with an opposition attempt in the Chamber of Deputies to debate repealing Decree 70/2023, which Milei signed shortly after taking office. The opposition failed to reach the quorum needed to open the special session. The Senate rejected the decree in March 2024, but it stays in force pending action by the lower house. 2