President Javier Milei downplayed the confrontation between his government and public universities, saying that he will not start applying fees to public higher education, while dozens of universities continued to join nationwide protests against severe budget cuts and tensions continue to rise.

“Universities will continue to be public, with no fees. We won’t touch that,” Milei said during an interview with LN news channel on Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, Milei vetoed a bill approved by Congress that granted a budget and salary increase for universities, something the community has been demanding since the start of the year. The Lower House upheld his veto in a session last Wednesday, which led to protests outside Congress and student occupations in dozens of university buildings all over the country.

“Cutting university budgets unfortunately directly affect the correct functioning of universities because they cover from teachers salaries, which are well below the poverty level, to general supplies,” said Lucius Cabral Zenardo, a law school delegate at the National University of Tucumán (UNT for its Spanish initials), where students and teachers have occupied the building since Monday ahead of a nationwide strike planned for Thursday.

Cabral Zenardo described having no internet access, classrooms in disrepair, and toilets being cut off this year because there wasn’t enough money for cleaning supplies. He told the Herald it’s not the........

© Buenos Aires Herald