The WUR delegation at the demonstration on Malieveld in The Hague, Nov. 25. Thousands of students, staff and board members attended the demonstration against the cuts on education on Malieveld in The Hague this afternoon. Afterwards, activists were ‘proud, combative and hopeful’.
The organization had counted on 10,000 attendees, but an estimated twice as many people were present at the Malieveld. WUR was present with about 150 employees. Some of them went together by train from Ede-Wageningen to The Hague this morning. Wageningen students – about sixty – also marched together. On behalf of the WUR board, Carolien Kroeze and Sjoukje Heimovaara were present.
Around 1 p.m., the demonstration began. After a few speakers, the group left a little after 2 p.m. in a march towards the building of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. There they booed and chanted.
Hope and fighting spirit
‘There was a good atmosphere’, Charlotte Koster (Microbiology) said afterwards. She and a few colleagues from WUR took the lead. ‘Everyone had brought hope and fighting spirit. There was a feeling of pride that there were so many of us. The willingness to take action is high, despite the crazy course of the protest in Utrecht, which did not take place. The overall turnout was far beyond expectations – when it was announced that there were twenty thousand of us, it palpably gave everyone even more hope for a good outcome.’ It seems that the Minister of Education Eppo Bruins was not in his office today, but in Brussels. Koster: ‘But he will certainly be impressed when he sees the images of today.’
Criticism
Last weekend reports surfaced that opposition parties D66, CDA and JA21 want to use their power in the Senate to largely stop the cuts in education and research. Meanwhile, GroenLinks-PvdA, SP, Denk, Volt and Partij voor de Dieren have also spoken out critically about the proposed cut of nearly 2 billion euros. The coalition does not have a majority in the Senate. Tomorrow begins the House of Representatives debate on the education budget.
Wageningen Mayor Floor Vermeulen also spoke out today in newspaper NRC about this terrible austerity operation’.
Translated with DeepL.
