Argentina’s Congress fails to overturn Milei’s university funding veto

Lower house of Congress fails to achieve a two-thirds majority needed to overrule president’s veto despite mass protests.

Argentina’s lower house of Congress has failed to reverse a presidential veto of legislation that would have shored up public university funding – a win for the country’s libertarian leader after mass protests opposing university cuts in recent months.

Wednesday’s vote upheld President Javier Milei’s veto of a bill that would have brought public university funding in line with Argentina’s inflation rate, one of the world’s highest. Argentina faces an economic crisis with annual inflation close to 240 percent and more than half of its population in poverty.

Thousands of people have demonstrated against austerity measures that Milei has introduced since his election win last year.

Milei, a self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, has pledged to gut public spending and derided the education system, calling the university funding bill “unjustified”. He argued that the law would jeopardise a fiscal balance he has promoted to tackle the long-running economic crisis.

Argentina’s health, pension and education spending have been the hardest hit by the cuts. University salaries have lost about 40 percent of their purchasing power due to inflation.