Javier Milei won a (pyrrhic?) victory last Wednesday when deputies favoring an increase in funding for public university education—in correspondence with the high levels of accumulated inflation—fell six votes short of overriding his veto to a bill triggering such lifeline. The owner of the Rivadavia armchair has little muscle in Congress but has won the critical support of the bench loyal to the conservative former president Mauricio Macri. The thesis is that once a positive fiscal balance is achieved and sustained, economic growth will be strong again and prosperity will rain down for all “the good Argentines”. Fiscal austerity is having certain macroeconomic successes, but the question is always when, if ever, the spill-over effect will occur.
In a pro-market environment such as the one promoted by the government of La Libertad Avanza, even a social cause that generates a wide consensus in Argentina is safe from a comprehensive adjustment. The explanation of a legislator who voted with Balcarce 50 reveals that it is preferred to dry up the education budget to keep markets happy. “If the presidential veto did not pass, it would have been a terrible sign for markets,” said PRO party member Alejandro Finocchiaro. “Fiscal balance is state policy and is immovable. Breaking it would mean that Argentines would be poorer,” said the Pink House spokesman. Meanwhile, salaries in the university sector have lost around 40% of their purchasing power.
The equation is simple: any expenditure proposed from the State's coffers must have a clear source of financing that does not imply monetary emission or indebtedness. In September, the Government had already succeeded in sustaining another veto that blocked legislation that sought to “apply the defibrillator” to retirees. In the case of higher education, the Executive, supported by operators installed in media such as LN+ and TN, defends that there is a lot of waste or little transparency in its economic management, adding to a bad performance from students. However, many times rhetoric has been ahead of—or has tried to replace—the facts, as an anti-Kirchnerist but generally objective journalist like Pablo Rossi acknowledged in LN+.
The controversy over the university funds cut by the government of Javier Milei has generated strong mobilizations (source of the image).Tension has moved to the streets, where students and teachers' unions have been mobilizing first to prevent the presidential veto from materializing, and now to reject its full implementation. ECLAC warns that Latin America in general is turning its back on education, a key factor in ensuring upward social mobility and reducing inequality. “The region is facing the worst education crisis in the last 40 years in terms of resources, learning, and management. And recognizing this crisis and not normalizing it is the first step to act urgently,” said the coordinator of an education program in Costa Rica on Thursday. In a nudge to what is happening in Argentina, she warned that “we cannot make fiscal improvements at the expense of the opportunities of children and adolescents”.
Since Wednesday night, when the decree vetoing the bill became effective, students in rebellion have been taking over university buildings, which the Government rejects and accuses of being a crime. This Thursday some fifty universities did not open their classrooms. “The popular will has been defrauded and democracy has yielded to the anti-republican way of governing by decree [...]”, expressed in a communiqué the National Universities Union Front pointing to the veto, certainly a constitutional tool from the strictly legal point of view. Next week there will be more demonstrations in the white-and-skyblue nation. In this sense, the Federation of University Teachers reaffirmed “its commitment to the defense of the public university, free, sound and at the service of the people”. We will keep our eyes focused on this situation.
SourceAnd this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.
