President Javier Milei vetoed two laws that granted extra funding for public universities and public children’s hospitals on the grounds that they go against his fiscal balance goals. 

The decision came in the fallout of Milei’s La Libertad Avanza’s electoral defeat on Sunday, after which the president said he would fix his mistakes ahead of October’s national legislative race. 

Milei had up to 15 working days to veto the laws after they were passed by Congress. The vetoes were published in the Official Gazette just hours before the deadline. Both were signed by Milei and all his ministers.

University students and professors organizations are already calling to march on the day Congress decides to address the vetoes, which has not been scheduled yet.

This is the second time Milei has vetoed a bill granting more resources for public universities and salary raises for their staff. In 2024, he used his veto power to overturn a similar law passed by Congress just hours after a massive march demanding him not to do so. Lawmakers approved the new bill in late August after making some adjustments to last year’s text, such as clearly stating where the funding should come from.

Milei has promised to veto any law that does not explain how it will be funded without risking fiscal balance.

The other bill vetoed by Milei had declared an emergency in the children’s healthcare sector. The law’s goal was to grant more resources and better salaries to the sector, especially the prestigious Garrahan Hospital in Buenos Aires. Its workers had been demanding a raise in salaries and funding, and said they were stretched so thin that their working conditions had reached breaking point.

After losing by a 13-point difference to Peronism in last Sunday’s Buenos Aires province legislative election, Milei said his government needed to engage in “self-criticism” and assess their mistakes. This is the administration’s first major electoral defeat. It happened a month and a half before the October 26 national legislative election, which is key for the government to win more seats in Congress and show power over the opposition.

The loss came in the wake of a corruption scandal involving high-ranking officials and his own sister, Karina Milei. While the president promised to fix the government’s mistakes, he also said that the government would stick to its policies and double down on their ideas. With these new vetoes, he seems to have decided to go down the path of insisting with the extreme austerity measures for the sake of fiscal balance.

Analysts have said that Sunday’s results showed the importance of political forces having a local presence, suggesting the changes could instead focus on local strength. On Wednesday, Milei announced the appointment of Lisandro Catalán as Interior Minister — a role that typically involves working with Argentina’s governors, who have been at loggerheads with the Milei government over funding.

The government justified the hospitals funding veto saying that “it is a duty of the national Congress not to make decisions that could put the future of all Argentines at risk and compromise their future,” and that overturning the bill will help to “continue the path of stability and growth.”

They also promised to “continue creating the necessary conditions to accomplish the strengthening of the healthcare system.”

Congress can now vote on whether to uphold Milei’s vetoes on these issues or reject them, which would mean the laws would be put back into force. Both chambers need to reject a veto with a two-thirds majority in order for it to be overturned.