- News
- 10/12/2025
Around noon, the Dam square in Amsterdam starts to fill up with demonstrators. They wear green caps or red hats handed out by the unions. They carry banners, flags, and protest signs.
Wageningen, Groningen, Leiden, Utrecht… Protesters have traveled here from all over the country. A seven-piece student band welcomes the crowd with upbeat pop music.
“I don’t like slogans”
“I don’t like demonstrating at all,” says Amsterdam full professor of media studies Jeroen de Kloet. “I don’t like slogans and I get bored. But yes, sometimes you have to.” He wants to speak out against the cuts to higher education and research.
For now, these cuts are still included in the national budget. The elections have not changed that. Education-focused party D66 is involved in negotiations to form a new government, but demonstrators remain wary—if only because the VVD is also at the table.
A Ukrainian chemistry student has traveled from Groningen to the Dam. He follows Dutch politics closely and does not trust that the cuts will be reversed. “Education is not even a topic in the coalition talks,” he says.
“Not everything is about immigration”
On stage, representatives of education unions FNV and AOb, various action groups, and local student unions take the microphone. “Don’t forget about us,” one of them says to the parties negotiating a coalition. “Not everything is about immigration, Defense, or housing.”
Three politicians also appear on stage: from the Socialist Party, GroenLinks–PvdA, and—yes—from D66. Distrust is palpable when MP Ilana Rooderkerk (D66) begins to speak. There’s even a brief wave of booing. Only when she says that D66 wants to invest in education and research does the crowd seem to soften. She poses next to a sign the organizers unveil: “We will reverse the cuts to higher education.”
The distrust among protesters is also fueled by what speakers refer to as the “militarization” of higher education. So much money is flowing to the armed forces—including in D66’s plans—that many fear it will come at the expense of the public sector. Speakers warn that education must show solidarity with, for example, healthcare and public broadcasting. “Books, not bombs!”
Some activists also chant “Free Palestine” and call for cutting ties with Israeli institutions, the fossil fuel industry, and American tech companies. They argue universities should become more democratic. “We’re going to choose your successors,” one activist shouts toward university administrators.
“Super happy”
Among the demonstrators (though not on stage) is Maaike Krom, chair of the National Student Union (LSVb). She is “super happy” with the turnout. She believes it could have been even larger if everyone had been given permission to attend. “Some students simply weren’t allowed to miss their classes!”
After all the speeches, a long procession sets off. A brass band plays somewhere in the middle, drumbeats echo farther back, and loud dance music blasts from speakers at the front. The march also passes the Maagdenhuis of the University of Amsterdam, a building occupied repeatedly since the 1960s but untouched today. A small group of protesters climbs the steps to the front door and waves flags, but that’s all. There are no incidents.
This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.
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