Buenos Aires saw violent clashes on Thursday as a massive protest over university funding ended with demonstrators and security forces battling outside Argentina's Congress building, while thousands of students and teachers marched to demand President Javier Milei enforce a funding law his government has refused to implement despite court orders.
What happened outside Congress
The demonstration, the fifth Federal University March since Milei took office in December 2023, drew thousands of students, teachers, university staff, trade unionists and opposition activists to Plaza Congreso. The main rally remained peaceful, with protesters carrying placards reading "Milei, uphold the law" and "Public university education is a right, not a privilege."
But the afternoon turned violent. Dozens of mostly hooded demonstrators broke away from the crowd and began hurling stones and other projectiles at police guarding the perimeter around the Congress building, according to reports. Security forces responded with tear gas, water cannon trucks, rubber bullets and pepper spray. The clashes, concentrated along Avenida Rivadavia, lasted an hour or more.
At least 31 people were detained and eight security officers were injured, according to the National Security Ministry. Emergency services reported two injured demonstrators, one of whom was taken to Ramos Mejía Hospital. Tear gas reached the annex of the Chamber of Deputies, where several lawmakers, including Deputy Cecilia Moreau, were affected.
The law at the center of the dispute
The protesters are demanding enforcement of the University Funding Law, passed by Congress in August 2025 and ratified again by lawmakers that October after Milei vetoed it. The law provides for inflation-linked salary increases for university staff dating to December 2023, the restoration of student scholarships, and more funding for university operations.
Milei's government has never implemented the law, despite a string of court rulings ordering it to do so, including a Supreme Court decision in June. Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier said this week the law was "suspended" while the government pursued legal action, arguing it identified no funding sources and contradicted the administration's balanced-budget policy. Milei says implementing the law would threaten his budget-balancing plan.
The numbers behind the dispute are stark. Public spending on universities fell by 41 percent in real terms in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2023, according to the Center for National Economic Research of the University of Buenos Aires. Authorities at the University of Buenos Aires, which has more than 300,000 students, estimate staff have lost roughly 30 percent of their salaries under Milei's administration, and more than 1,200 teachers and researchers have left the university.
What both sides say
"We are demanding that they pay us what they owe us," Francisca Staiti, general secretary of the teachers' union Conadu Histórica, told AFP. "Our demand is for funding, for the university budget the government has not fulfilled for more than 350 days," said Juan Sgró, a professor at the National University of Córdoba, speaking to Reuters. Student Victoria Coronel told AFP that teachers keep leaving because their salaries are no longer enough.
The government sees the violence differently. Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva accused protesters of "wanting to sow chaos," writing on X that "the right to protest is not a right to exercise violence." The Security Ministry filed a criminal complaint against those detained, covering resistance to authority and aggravated damage, and said the date was not coincidental: the opposition had that same day failed to reach quorum on a bid to repeal Milei's sweeping deregulation decree.
Opposition lawmaker Germán Martínez offered a contrasting account, calling the clashes a "provocation" and saying security forces had failed to ensure the demonstration could proceed peacefully.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: Malay Mail (AFP), Buenos Aires Times, Reuters.