The cuts in education and research have only just been approved in the Senate and immediately new cuts are coming on top: in the Spring Memorandum, the government is cutting the budget again.

It is against the wishes of strikers, who have made their voices heard throughout the country in recent months. Last Thursday, employees and students took action at the TU/e, and on Friday TU Delft was the last one. For now, these were the last in the relay.

Gijs Kooistra, director of the union FNV Education & Research, announced a new national day of action: Tuesday, June 10. Details are yet to follow, nor is the location yet known. Action groups and other unions are also participating.

Damage

The National Union of Students is also there. “The strikes have apparently not been enough,” says president Abdelkader Karbache. "In the Spring Memorandum, the new damage to higher education is not too bad. That shows that the strikes did help. But now vocational and secondary education have been hit. The coalition cannot be trusted, we have to show that we do not accept this."

According to Karbache, the cabinet has also lost its “allies”, making the protest even more likely to succeed. He is referring to the three Christian parties and JA21, which compromised with the ruling parties to ease the cuts. CDA, Christian Union and SGP turned out to be unpleasantly surprised that new cuts are already on the table.

Previous

The previous nationwide protest took place last November. Then thousands of protesters came to the Malieveld in The Hague. “Don't do it”, was the slogan that opposition parties also invariably repeat.