Tens of thousands of Argentines have taken to the streets in cities across the country to protest funding cuts by Javier Milei’s government to the public university system.

Huge crowds in central Buenos Aires marched towards the presidential palace on Tuesday to denounce budget shortfalls that they say are undermining the foundations of higher education.

Argentina’s public universities have been tuition-free since 1949 and have produced five Nobel laureates.

Congress approved a law last year to finance universities’ operating costs and increase academic salaries in line with soaring inflation. The government, however, has refused to implement it and is challenging the legislation in court.

Milei regularly denounces universities as bastions of “woke” teaching. He has sharply reduced public education spending as part of a broader effort to slash the state budget, which he argues has been bloated by decades of reckless expenditures and corruption under his left-leaning predecessors.

Tuesday’s demonstration drew people of all ages and political leanings, as Milei faces sliding approval ratings amid a shrinking economy, falling real wages and rising unemployment.

Public anger has also been spurred by a series of corruption allegations, including an investigation into what local media describe as lavish spending by Milei’s close ally, Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni, which appears at odds with his official salary and declared assets.

Alejandro Alvarez, the president’s undersecretary for university policy, dismissed the march as “completely political” and insisted the government had compensated universities for higher costs, increases that unions say fall far short of what is needed.

Since Milei took office in late 2023, university professors’ salaries have fallen by about a third in real terms, adjusting for inflation, according to the main teachers’ federation.