Argentina faces upheaval this week as university professors, students and workers plan mass protests against President Javier Milei’s threat to veto the university financing bill just passed by Congress to ensure financing to the country’s 61 public, tuition-free universities. Add to this, the publication of new poverty statistics by the state statistical agency, INDEC, reporting an official rate of 52.9%. The daily Tiempo Argentino commented today on the rapidity with which the country has descended into that level of poverty, not seen since the dark days of 2002 when the end of the quasi-currency board system known as “convertibility” unleashed an unprecedented economic and political crisis in which 37 people were killed. The poverty rate for the first half of 2023 was 41%, so the jump to 52.9% is a big one.
In addition to the poverty figure, indigence now stands at 18.1% (8.5 million people) up from 9.3% in the first half of 2023. High inflation and Milei’s brutal austerity have gutted wages, and INDEC’s just-completed Permanent Household Survey concludes there are 24.8 million poor (the 52.9%) out of a population of 47 million, an increase of 5 million compared to the previous six months. Very alarming is the report that 66% of children and adolescents are now classified as poor. So, political ferment is accelerating.
The unstable Milei is said to be unnerved by the results of the new poll conducted by the Public Opinion Studies Center (CEOP), reported by Página 12, which shows his approval rating at 40% down from a high of 61% on Dec.10, 2023 when he took office. CEOP reports that the biggest drop occurred just in the month between August and September, and he is apparently losing the youth vote, once his major base of support.
