The facts
Students at the University of Buenos Aires occupied a building to protest President Javier Milei’s austerity policies, which they claim threaten free higher education. Banners protesting spending cuts covered the faculty’s central hall, where students announced the occupation as a traditional form of protest to raise public awareness and pressure the government. Emiliano Gato, a physics student, expressed concern that professors are leaving for private universities due to low salaries, impacting research and teaching opportunities. Public universities have become a focal point of Milei’s austerity plan, with students and professors protesting funding shortages and salary erosion. Milei, who took office in 2023, has implemented significant austerity measures, including layoffs and program cuts, to combat high inflation. While Milei claims the plan is succeeding and Argentina is experiencing economic growth, critics argue it negatively impacts public education, welfare, and pensioners. Congress previously overturned presidential vetoes to approve laws increasing university funding and declaring a disability emergency, but Milei’s government has not implemented them, citing financing issues. A federal judge has begun fining the government daily for failing to implement parts of a financing law that requires restoring university salaries, updating budgets, and providing funding for research and infrastructure. Thousands protested in Buenos Aires on Thursday, which turned violent with police using tear gas and rubber bullets. At least 25 people were detained, and several were injured.
Our take
Javier Milei is the kind of economic visionary who thinks you can fix a country by setting its universities on fire and then claiming the light is helping you read the fucking budget. His big-brain austerity plan has professors fleeing for private jobs because their public salaries are a sick joke, leaving students like Emiliano Gato to watch their labs and classrooms rot. But here’s the beautiful part: Congress already told this clown to stop, overriding his vetoes to pass laws that would actually fund the places. Milei’s response? To stick his fingers in his ears, yell about ‘financing issues,’ and hope everyone forgets. Surprise, asshole - a federal judge didn’t forget, and is now fining the government daily for this pathetic stunt. That’s right, the ‘libertarian’ hero is so committed to law and order that he’s accruing court-ordered penalties like they’re frequent-flyer miles to Shitsville. Meanwhile, students have occupied a central hall and draped it in banners, because the traditional way to deal with a government that acts like a toddler is to treat it like one and make a huge, unignorable mess. Thousands took to the streets, got met with tear gas and rubber bullets, and had two dozen people detained, all because this prick would rather play cop than comply with a fucking law. So let’s review the Milei method: veto funding, ignore Congress, get fined by the courts, gas your own citizens, and then go on TV to boast about economic growth while the education system collapses behind you. It’s a masterclass in being a completely shameless, reality-denying cunt. The only growth happening is the stack of unpaid judicial fines and the line of professors heading for the exit. The occupation isn’t just a protest; it’s a daily, banner-covered reminder that you can’t ‘austerity’ your way out of a court order, you arrogant, penny-pinching bastard. Enjoy the fines, fuckface. They’re the only new revenue stream you seem to be generating.
