Thousands of demonstrators in The Hague: 'Stop the Eppocalypse!'

There are railway delays, it is drizzling in The Hague, and Malieveld is muddy. Even so, the turnout exceeds expectations. Thousands of demonstrators keep on coming. “We were hoping about 10,000 people would come,” says someone from the union. "There may well be twice as many.”

The police estimate the turnout to be slightly lower, at 15,000, but still. People from all over the country have come to The Hague in droves. They hired buses, they organised themselves to take the train together. The delays did not matter.

Capital destruction

Els Rose, Professor of Late & Medieval Latin, is at The Hague Central Station waiting for colleagues arriving on a later train. She carries two signs, one for herself and one for a colleague. According to her, the new cabinet is demolishing education with a sledgehammer. “They are demolishing what the previous cabinet worked so carefully to build up. That is just terrible governance. As a research director at the Department of Language, Literature & Communication, I am more worried than most people. This is a threat of major capital destruction because important knowledge is at risk. We do not want that to happen.” (DUB)

A Psychology student from Norway came from Maastricht with about 35 others. “Trump was elected partly because of conspiracy theories,” she says. “That alone shows how important knowledge and education are.” Further away, two communication staff members from a university are sheltering under the canopy of a stand. “Who is the Minister of Education again?”, one of them asks. Oh yeah, his name is Eppo Bruins.

Most people know his name, however. The minister's name appears on many signs and banners. "Bruin, bruiner, Bruins" (Brown, Browner, Bruins, Ed.) says one of them, while another one says: "Stop the Eppocalypse." The latter also resounds across Malieveld when one of the speakers shouts the slogan into the microphone.

Verantwoordelijkheid ontlopen

The Philosopher Maarten van Houte, a lecturer and member of the Humanities Faculty Council, believes that harsh language should no longer be avoided, especially regarding the minister from the political party NSC. “Bad developments in politics are timeless. We should therefore not shy away from certain comparisons,” he says, explaining the text on his sign, which tells NSC to stop "whining" like the far-right party PVV, also in the coalition, does. “Let us start by pointing out to NSC that they have a responsibility to society. They cannot continue to support the cabinet just because they are afraid of losing seats. That is morally wrong.” (DUB)

Marileen Dogterom, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, is at the front of the field. "I expect us all to send such a clear signal that the House of Representatives will think twice about these budget cuts. I also hope that the Senate will be able to stop it.”

She is not the only one who hopes so. After all, the four coalition parties do not have a majority in the Senate, so they depend on opposition parties to pass the measures. And those parties say they want to stop the cutbacks from happening, although they still have to agree on how to do it.

Jimmy Dijk, leader of the Socialist Party, is at the protest. “The most important thing is that the entire opposition wants to get those austerity measures off the table, but we should not convert a fine for taking longer to graduate into a fine for being sick,” he says. He refers to the parties CDA, D66 and JA21, which proposed a smaller reduction of the deductible part of health insurance in exchange for a milder cut in the education budget. “Let's not pit people against each other. We will meet in the next few days to see how we can stop these draconian cuts.” The left-wing bloc wants to take the austerity measures completely off the table.

Rode kaart

Kirsten Hollaender works at UU's Administration Office as a project manager promoting international cooperation. She put a UU running shirt on a long window wiper and pinned a red square onto it. “This is a red card for the government because they are demolishing agreements made previously, which is unsportsmanlike behaviour. If you do that in sports, you are sent away. I am concerned about the decline in funding for science and I am afraid that Dutch universities will become less attractive to international researchers.” (DUB)

Kirsten Hollaender werkt bij de Bestuursdienst als projectmanager aan het bevorderen van internationale samenwerking. Ze heeft vanochtend een hardloopshirt van de UU op een lange raamwisser gezet en er een rood vierkant op gespeld. “Dat is een rode kaart. Deze regering krijgt een rode kaart omdat ze terugkomen op gemaakte afspraken. Dat is onsportief gedrag en in de sport word je dan weggestuurd. Ik maak me zorgen over de teruglopende financiering van wetenschap en ik ben bang dat Nederlandse universiteiten minder aantrekkelijk worden voor internationale onderzoekers.” (DUB)

Representatives of trade unions, student organisations and education associations all gave speeches yesterday. Abdelkader Karbache, chair of the National Student Union (LSVb) can hardly choose what to say. He thinks it is hypocritical of the minister to take longer to decide whether or not he will introduce a fine for students who take longer to graduate. People then proceed to boo the minister. But Karbache notes that a single protest is not enough and people have more influence than they think. He says they need to unite and unionise. 

An earlier demonstration in Utrecht was cancelled out of fear of pro-Palestinian rioters, although students still took to the streets to protest and the threat turned out to be a false alarm. Bas van Weegberg (FNV) believes that authorities should keep their “hands” off the right to demonstrate. He emphasises that this right also matters “for those who are begging for peace in Gaza, where no university is left standing”.

Desmantelada

"Universities are being stripped down," reads a sign by lecturers in Spanish Language & Culture Susana Rosano Ochoa and Luisa García–Manso. Spanish and English are the only foreign languages that will retain dedicated Bachelor's programmes at UU, but the two are certainly not happy. “It is a mistake to eliminate the other language programmes. The university will lose part of its personality. We really feel that way. Languages ​​have a right to exist and we will miss the other programmes.” (DUB)
 

Finally, three opposition politicians take the stage. D66 leader Rob Jetten uses an old slogan: “If you think education is expensive, you don’t know what stupidity costs.” GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans stresses how education can build bridges in society. Sandra Beckerman, a spokesperson from the Socialist Party for higher education, thinks it’s great to see “how we can stand up together and take action.”

Then, an orchestra plays a variation on the Italian song Bella Ciao (“Say goodbye, say goodbye, say goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!”) and the demonstrators begin marching through The Hague, past the tower block where the Ministry of Education is located.

Langstudeerboete

Luuk Dijkstra is taking part in the march. He is a study advisor at the Faculty of Humanities. His protest sign was made by his girlfriend Nicole. “This sign speaks for itself, doesn’t it? The government is using a wrecking ball. Many students have told me they are worried. The main thing they are afraid of is the fine for students who take longer to graduate. This is hitting them hard, already. They don’t know where they stand and what they must take into account. I see today as step one to get the austerity measures off the table. We are not going to accept what might happen.” (DUB)