Minutes after the massive symbolic hug at the UBA Hospital de Clínicas and in the midst of the national universities’ claim for the budget cut, the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francosdisengaged the Government due to lack of funds.
“It makes a little noise to me That just now these difficulties are being raised at the Hospital de Clínicas, which are historical, have been going on for a long time. The crisis of the Hospital de Clínicas has been in the City for 25 or 30 years,” Francos questioned, in reference to the claim that the doctors and professionals of the teaching hospital that is an emblem of the UBA made in front of the building.
Along these lines, and far from trying to tone down the controversy, the official asked: “Does the Milei Government have to take charge of a problem at the Clinical Hospital that dates back 30 or 40 years?Milei has to take charge of the definancing of the public university?”
Francos demanded to depoliticize the conflict but immediately warned that the universities have been “a vehicle for party use for some sectors”.
Without giving further details about the sectors that, according to him, benefit politically from the universities, Francos asked to investigate whether these study houses did not become “a place where artificial, unnecessary work“.
“It is a complex moment for all Argentines and it is important to depoliticize the conflict. Universities have been an important instrument for the training of professionals in Argentina but they have also been a vehicle for partisan use for some sectors that have dedicated themselves to politics” , he emphasized.
The minister insisted that the university “has been an instrument of politics, and just look at the number of workers that the university has, university professors, non-university professors, there is everything,” and added: “Why don’t we look closely and just how “The State has settled its accounts… Why don’t we dedicate ourselves to analyzing whether national universities have not become a place where artificial, unnecessary work has been generated?”
For Francos, “a part of the spending that the public university has has a lot to do with that. And when you have to adjust expenses you have to adjust it everywhere.”
Criticism of the Government for budget cuts to universities. Photo Maxi Failla.The official’s words against the universities were almost simultaneous with the symbolic embrace of the Hospital de Clínicas.
The demonstration was called by the University of Buenos Aires after the authorities warned once again about the impact of the Government’s decision not to update the budget.
The protest was called by the rector of the UBA himself, Ricardo Gelpi, in the midst of the crisis that, according to the various study houses, is deepening and putting its operations in check.
