BUENOS AIRES — Tens of thousands of Argentines flooded the streets of major cities nationwide on Tuesday to protest funding cuts by libertarian President Javier Milei to the public university system. Vast crowds in downtown Buenos Aires marched toward the government headquarters to denounce budget shortfalls eroding the financial foundation of the country's higher education.

The demonstration gathered people of all ages and political persuasions. Argentina's public university system, tuition-free since 1949, has produced five Nobel Prize laureates.

Milei has slashed public education funding as part of his plan to cut state spending, and routinely attacks university campuses as bastions of "woke" indoctrination. Since he took office in late 2023, university professors' paychecks have declined by roughly one-third in real terms, adjusting for inflation, according to the main teachers' federation.

Congress passed a law last year to fund universities' operational costs and raise teacher salaries in line with high inflation. The government has not implemented the legislation and is challenging it in court, arguing that the law fails to specify how the state will supply the mandatory funding increases during harsh fiscal austerity. The case is expected to go to the Supreme Court.

Alejandro Álvarez, undersecretary for university policies, said the government had compensated universities for higher operating costs through marginal increases that unions have rejected as insufficient. "Completely political," Álvarez said of the protest.

Sol Muñíz, a law student at the University of Buenos Aires, said: "It's very clear this government is determined to defund public education. University is a source of pride for us. It is the best thing we have."

Ricardo Gelpi, rector of the University of Buenos Aires, said steep losses in purchasing power have driven at least 580 research professors in the engineering and science departments to leave the public system for private universities or other jobs.

Milei faces declining approval ratings as economic activity slumps, wages fall and unemployment climbs. An investigation into lavish spending by Cabinet chief Manuel Adorni appears inconsistent with his modest public salary and declared assets.