Students and faculty protest Javier Milei's visit to King Juan Carlos University

• Students and professors at King Juan Carlos University (URJC) in Madrid held protests on October 21 against a campus visit by Argentine President Javier Milei.
• The visit, part of the 10th Annual Madrid Conference on Austrian Economics, led to significant tensions, a heavy police presence, and the cordoning off of campus buildings.
• Protesters criticized the university's decision to grant an official platform to a leader associated with austerity and the privatization of public services, highlighting double standards compared to the restriction of previous speakers.

Protest Dynamics and Demands

• Demonstrators chanted slogans against Milei's presence, highlighting his economic policies in Argentina, and displayed banners within university buildings.
• Protesters managed to enter the lecture hall building following a confrontation with counter-protesters who had removed their protest banners.
• Organizations including the 'URJC por la Pública' platform and the Socialist Student Organization demanded the university distance itself from the event and provide transparency regarding potential public costs incurred.

Compulsory Attendance and Faculty Involvement

• The event's lead organizer, professor Jesús Huerta de Soto, is an anarcho-capitalist scholar and a primary mentor to Milei.
• Students from undergraduate Communication and Economics courses reported that their professors, Huerta de Soto and Philipp Bagus, made attendance at the conference mandatory.
• Testimonies indicate that these professors frequently use their lecture time to promote anarcho-capitalist ideology and their own publications, sometimes under armed security.

Institutional and Financial Concerns

• The UGT union and individual faculty members, such as professor Concha Mateos, formally requested that the university rector, Abraham Duarte, avoid official institutional support for the event.
• Critics emphasized the contrast between the university's low per-student funding—among the lowest in Spain—and the institutional endorsement given to a politician actively advocating for the dismantling of public sectors.