Hundreds of thousands of Argentines have taken to the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities in the country, against the cut in funding for state universities. The numbers are disputed - according to the newspaper Clarín, in the capital alone around 600,000 people protested, and nationally over 1.5 million. Other outlets (La Nación) put the Buenos Aires figure at 120,000. Either way - the scale isn't up for debate.

The trigger is specific. Javier Milei, the far-right president who took office in 2023 with promises of „radical austerity", cut the budgets of state universities. Studying at state universities in Argentina is free - a tradition going back decades, one of the reasons Argentina has several Nobel laureates and one of the most educated populations in Latin America.

Parliament has already passed a law on the financing of state universities. The government blocked it with an „objection", claiming the law „isn't specific about funding sources". The Supreme Court is now deciding the matter. Classic move - when a legal decision doesn't go your way, push it into a legal maze hoping society will cool off.

Society heated up instead. The placards carried the most recognisable phrases: „No future without education". Students, professors, trade unionists, opposition politicians - all united. When a single government move unites such different groups, that's a sure sign the move is politically catastrophic.

For the Balkans this is a story with several layers. The Argentine experiment with Milei (radical cuts, „no harm to anyone" according to the rhetoric, real damage to core institutions) is being watched in many states in our region. Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and others have their own variants of „austerity" rhetoric. And state universities are the first casualty everywhere.

When 600,000 people fill the streets of a capital, it isn't „pockets of unhappy groups". It's a social fracture. And while the Balkans have a tradition of demonstrations, news of one this size is rare. Maybe it's time they were less so. Milei has told Argentine children he'll leave them without the chance of free education. The Balkans have that bill in front of them - with the difference that it can still be avoided.