WOinAction: 'Minister must resign'
Hundreds of scientists and students came to Leiden to protest against cabinet policy. They heard foreman Rens Bod calling for the minister to resign.
Picture: HOP
“We don't want a minister who will destroy university education,” exclaimed UvA professor Bod, “we want a minister who stands up for scientific education. We do not want a minister who lets the workload get out of hand, but a minister who fights the workload. ”
And that is not D66 minister Ingrid van Engelshoven, he believes. "That is why we are today withdrawing our confidence in this minister and calling on her to resign."
Red squares
Opposite him stood and sat very enthusiastic activists, some of whom had come in togas. There were about 750, the police estimated. They applauded loudly and shouted "boo!" at the right time. Many wore the red squares that were handed out on their clothes. There were also berets for the activists. The scientists carried protest signs with slogans such as 'The next step is on strike' and 'WO ≠ left hobby'.
>We don't want a minister who lets the workload get completely out of hand, but a minister who combats the workload
After Bod, the Utrecht professor Ingrid Robeyns spoke, who warned that the political battle was far from over. Social history shows that you can only change something through cooperation, she emphasized. "We just keep going."
Scientists in Leiden are protesting against cabinet policy. (Image: HOP).
Minister Van Engelshoven himself had just given a speech at the official opening of the academic year of Leiden University, some fifty meters away. She does not seem planning to step down. She did show understanding for all the anger and hinted that the cabinet might want to make a gesture on Budget Day. That message was received with great skepticism by the activists.
Disastrous
Her host, Carel Stolker, had been scathing earlier today in two newspapers taken out to the minister. He called her policies disastrous and could not remember when the relationship between politics and universities has been so bad.
WOinAactie takes such comments as statements of support for the call to resign. "Universities and research institutes say it implicitly, but WOinActions says it explicitly."
