President Javier Milei added fuel to the fire of the conflict between public universities and the government in a fiery speech on Saturday night. The president said free public higher education is “a myth” and accused university authorities of being “thieves and liars,” claiming they refuse audits. His comments come days after Congress approved his veto against a funding increase and widespread protests in response.

“The inconvenient truth in Argentina is that public universities at a national level are not accessible to anyone but the children of the upper and middle-upper classes,” Milei said at an event renaming the Centro Cultural Kirchner (CCK) as “Palacio Libertad, Centro Cultural Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.” The president was the main speaker of the night.

“In a country in which most children are poor and don’t know how to read, write or do a basic math exercise, the myth of free public universities means the poor are subsidizing the rich, whose children are the only ones who can enter university with the necessary means, culture and time to study,” Milei added, claiming public higher education was an obstacle for social mobility.

Milei’s comments come 10 days after vetoing a bill to increase university funding and staff salaries, a decision met with nationwide protests. Despite approving the funding increase weeks earlier, Congress upheld the veto on Wednesday after opposition deputies did not meet the required majority to overturn it, sparking more marches and university buildings being taken over by students.

Although Saturday’s event was unrelated to the issue, Milei focused his speech on the situation, using Sarmiento, one of Argentina’s most prominent promoters of free and universal public education in the 1800s, as a starting point for lambasting educators and students.

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One of the main points of contention presented by the administration is an alleged lack of auditing, framing the discussion as an issue of scarce resources and lack of accountability. However, public universities have internal audits periodically, and their results are published to guarantee transparency. But they can also be audited by the government’s General National Audit office (AGN, by its Spanish acronym), which is currently auditing six public universities. 

The government claims universities are refusing to be audited, something the education community denies.

“That’s why we want to audit [universities]. Not because we want to close them down like they lie to people about, but because we also want to protect them by protecting resources, and for that, we need to audit them,” Milei said.

In August, the AGN and the National Inter-University Council signed a cooperation agreement aimed at making university management more efficient and transparent. In April, the AGN also shared a list of the university faculties they have audited in the last decade.

“Stop fooling Argentines and tell them the truth: that you don’t want to be audited because you want to protect your shady businesses,” Milei said in his speech.