In a challenge to Milei, the opposition in the House of Representatives approves more funding for universities.

Like a recurring nightmare for Javier Milei , the Chamber of Deputies once again approved a bill that increases the budget of public universities, victims of the presidential chainsaw. The Argentine Congress had already passed a similar law last year, following massive protests by students and professors with broad social support. But in October, the far-right president vetoed it. Now, legislators from various opposition parties have returned to the fray and secured overwhelming support in the lower house: 158 votes in favor, 75 against, and 5 abstentions.

As the bill moves to the Senate, where it must be approved to become law, the threat of a new veto from Milei already looms: for the president, any budget increase is an attack on his main management objective: a fiscal surplus.

The House of Representatives session held this Wednesday was accompanied, outside Congress in downtown Buenos Aires, by a protest by retirees demanding, as they do every week, an increase in their pensions, which have been severely reduced since Milei took office. Besieged by a major police operation, this time they had an additional reason to protest. Last Monday, the president exercised his veto power and repealed a law granting them an "exceptional and emergency" increase .

The bill to improve the higher education budget was drafted by the national universities themselves, with the support of the sector's unions. In reality, it's not an increase, but rather an adjustment for inflation. The text calls for updating the funds allocated to universities and their staff salaries in line with the accumulated inflation of the last two years. Milei governs without a budget approved by law : since he failed to secure parliamentary support, he simply extended the 2023 budget to both 2024 and 2025.

Although inflation currently hovers around 2% per month, during his 20 months in office, the cumulative rate has exceeded 200%. By decree, the president has updated some items and eliminated others. In the case of universities, the budget and salary losses are close to 30%, a level similar to that suffered by the entire national public administration.

"We are in an unusual situation; once again, we are faced with the need to respond to the needs of Argentine public universities," Representative Blanca Osuna, of the Kirchnerist Union for the Homeland, opened the debate. The legislator maintained that "there is no justification whatsoever" for the government's failure to fulfill its obligation to fund universities and warned that the current higher education budget is the lowest, in real terms, in two decades.

Throughout the debate, which lasted more than six hours, the cross-party support for the bill was clear: in addition to Peronism, the main opposition force, representatives from the Left Front and centrist blocs, such as the Radical Civic Union and Federal Encounter, among others, also spoke in favor. “This government's educational policy clearly shows contempt for public universities. We cannot overlook the cuts, mistreatment, and stigmatization suffered by the cradle of equality that is the national public university,” said Representative Maximiliano Ferraro of the Civic Coalition, another of the factions that promoted the bill.

Opposing the issue were Milei's La Libertad Avanza (LLA) party, and PRO, the conservative party led by former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019). Both groups had just finalized an electoral alliance for the upcoming legislative elections and operated in harmony in Congress. Their main argument was that increasing university funding would destabilize the public accounts surplus achieved by Milei.

"It is incompatible with the commitment to fiscal balance made by our president to the citizens," said Mercedes Llano, a representative from the LLA party. "If this bill is approved, the efforts of every Argentine will have been in vain. Fiscal balance will be broken again, there will be more poor people in Argentina, and fewer students from the most disadvantaged groups in universities," argued Alejandro Finocchiaro, a representative and former Minister of Education for the PRO party.

The overwhelming majority of votes in favor of improving university funding settled the discussion. But a debate soon resumed along almost the same lines regarding the next bill under consideration: the declaration of an emergency for the pediatric health system, another area of adjustment by the government. This bill, which, among other measures, allocates more resources to the country's largest pediatric center, Garrahan Hospital , was also supported by the majority of the Chamber: it received 159 votes in favor, 67 against, and 4 abstentions.

In the Senate, both bills are expected to be approved and signed into law. If so, Milei will have to decide whether to sign new vetoes, as he has stated he would do with all laws that require greater state spending or investment. Public education and healthcare are sensitive issues for Argentine society, and unlike last year, this year the elections for deputies and senators are very close: voting will take place in the province of Buenos Aires in September, and the national elections will be held in October. For now, in search of some electoral leverage, Milei announced that he will stop insulting those who criticize him .