Labor unions, opposition parties, and private universities backed the protests in Buenos Aires and other major cities – in one of the biggest demonstrations yet against the austerity measures introduced since Milei took office in December.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires on Tuesday to protest against budget cuts to public universities, the biggest protest yet against President Javier Milei's painful austerity measures.

Pictures from the city showed marchers dancing, playing musical instruments, and holding banners calling for education funding to be protected.

Joined by professors, parents, and alumni from all 57 state-run universities in the economic crisis-riddled South American country, students rose “in defence of free public university education”.

The demonstrations are the latest example of rising tension over spending cuts that are helping undo a deep fiscal deficit but causing hardship in the real economy.

In the union-backed marches in Buenos Aires and beyond, banners were held aloft reading “Defend the public universities”, “Studying is a right”, and “Up with the budget, down with Milei’s plan”.

“I’m here to defend the public universities,” said Pedro Palm, an 82-year-old architect who graduated from the prestigious University of Buenos Aires (UBA), which recently warned it might have to shut down within three months unless it receives more funding.

Police said around 100,000 people turned out in the capital alone, while organisers put the number at closer to half a million – paralysing the city centre for hours on end.

A teachers’ union reported a million protesters countrywide.

Milei’s government dismissed Tuesday’s protests as “political”.

The president came to office last December promising to bring Argentina’s finances under control with sweeping cuts to the public sector.

To that end, his government has slashed subsidies for transport, fuel, and energy, even as wage-earners have lost a fifth of their purchasing power.

Thousands of public servants have lost their jobs, and Milei has faced numerous anti-austerity protests.

His government has also kept university funding this year at the same level as in 2023, despite inflation having reduced the real value of the budget by as much as 80%.

Milei has tried to justify the cuts by repeatedly describing state-run universities as centres of socialist indoctrination.

But Argentina’s public universities like UBA, which offer free undergraduate education, rely heavily on government funding.

“Education is one of the fundamental pillars of our ideology. We have no desire to close the universities,” said presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni, defending the government’s stance and calling for a peaceful march.