Nationwide protest against higher education budget cuts on June 10

The cuts in education and research have only just been approved by the Senate, and new cuts are already being proposed: in the Spring Memorandum, the government is once again cutting education and research.

This is a sore point for activists, who have been making their voices heard throughout the country in recent months. Yesterday, staff and students took action at TU Delft. This was the last in the relay for the time being.

Gijs Kooistra, director of the FNV trade union, announced a new national day of action: Tuesday 10 June. Details are still to follow, and the location is not yet known. Action groups and other trade unions are also participating.

Damage
The Landelijke Studentenvakbond (the trade union of students) is also involved. "The strikes have apparently not been enough," says chairman Abdelkader Karbache. "The Spring Memorandum does not contain any major new cuts to higher education. That shows that the strikes have helped. But now vocational education and secondary education are being hit. The coalition cannot be trusted; we have to show that we will not accept this."

According to Karbache, the cabinet has also lost its ‘allies’, giving the protest even more chance of success. He is referring to the three Christian parties and JA21, which reached a compromise with the governing parties to soften the cuts. The CDA, ChristenUnie and SGP were unpleasantly surprised that new cuts are already being proposed.

Previous
The previous nationwide protest took place last November. Thousands of demonstrators gathered at the Malieveld in The Hague. ‘Don't do it’ was the slogan that opposition parties also repeated.