"We never thought about closing public universities, we never thought about defunding them," said the Argentine president, five days after a large march that defended the right to free higher education.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, assured on Sunday that he will maintain public universities and attacked his opponents, five days after a massive federal university march, the largest protest so far against his government's austerity measures.
Milei, a far-right economist who took office in December with the promise of lowering triple-digit inflation and cleaning up the economy, accused his opponents of "taking a noble cause" such as the defense of free education and "prostituting" it, and claimed in two extensive interviews the direction of his administration.
"We never thought about closing public universities, we never thought about defunding them," Milei told the LN+ television channel, just as he said before on Rivadavia radio.
"It's called the straw man fallacy. Our opponents invented a lie and attack us based on that lie," he noted.
And he remarked: "Since taxpayers are financing public universities, we demand that there be audits. There have not been audits for 10 years. Who is the one who does not want to be audited in spending? The thief."
Hundreds of thousands of people marched on Tuesday the 23rd in Buenos Aires and the main cities of the country in a call of students, graduates and university teachers to which unions, opposition parties and citizens in general joined.
Alma mater in budget emergency
Universities declared a budgetary emergency after the government extended the same 2023 budget this year, although year-on-year inflation touched 290% in March.
In response to complaints, last week Milei agreed to "increase operating expense items by 70% in March and another 70% in May," in addition to an extraordinary sum for university hospitals, according to the presidential spokesperson.
Milei stressed on Sunday that the march took place "despite the fact that the funds had been transferred."
It was "the reissue of (Sergio) Massa's campaign of fear," said the president, referring to his electoral rival in the last elections.
Milei also denounced the alleged participation of "hired actors" to give testimony against the government and considered the presence of people who voted for him in the runoff "very minority."
