{"id":160498,"date":"2023-10-30T15:58:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=160498"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:02","slug":"zero-interest-zero-interest-hundreds-demonstrate-outside-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/10\/30\/zero-interest-zero-interest-hundreds-demonstrate-outside-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Zero interest, zero interest!’ Hundreds demonstrate outside Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most current and former students, the quintupling of the interest rate came as a complete surprise. Several hundred people gathered outside the Dutch Parliament on Wednesday afternoon to protest the increase. \u201cWe didn’t understand until afterwards and that isn’t fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Several hundred protesters took part in the demonstration in The Hague.<\/span><\/p>

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Around two o\u2019clock, several hundred people assembled in front of the building temporarily being used by the House of Representatives. Fresh-faced first-year students were on hand, but also students who have been studying longer than the set period, millennials with massive student debts and even \u2018concerned parents\u2019. They see the interest-rate hike as the latest of many affronts to a generation of students \u2018who have been screwed over too many times already\u2019.<\/p>\n

Leaflets<\/h2>

In the crowd, political parties including BIJ1, Volt and SP are hard at work handing out flyers. The parties have even sent out their own \u2018reporters\u2019, so that they can express empathy for the unlucky students<\/em> being filmed, who did not receive a basic student grant. Of course, one reporter emphasises, voting for their party will help.<\/p>\n

There was already a great deal of commotion over the study-loan interest this week, as Elisa Weehuizen, Chair of the Dutch Student Union, also stressed in front of an audience of several hundred protesters. \u201cIf the politicians are already submitting motions to return the rate to zero, I confidently await what the future has in store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Promises<\/h2>

Beside her stand Yasmin Ait Abderrahman from FNV Young & United and politicians Nicki Pouw-Verweij (BBB), Habtamu de Hoop (PvdA), Edson Olf (BIJ1), Lilian Marijnissen (SP) and Frank Wassenberg (PvdD). They solemnly pledge to eliminate the interest as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

The crowd goes wild and chants phrases like \u2018zero interest, zero interest\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019re the unlucky generation, we demand compensation\u2019. But De Hoop is booed when he says it\u2019s not possible to cancel the interest immediately. \u201cWe have to do our very best to freeze the interest rate next year and then, with support from Parliament, get rid of it.\u201d He only just manages to win back the crowd\u2019s favour by emphasising that he is the same age as most of the protesters and is also part of the unlucky generation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cardboard signs<\/h2>

21-year-old Bente is one of the protesters. Her cardboard sign reads: \u201cInterest has to go, Bente says hello\u201d. \u201cThe interest-rate hike feels like a slap in the face\u201d, she says. Bente is studying Artificial Intelligence at the VU University Amsterdam and lives in student accommodations in Diemen. She owes 20,000 euros. \u201cThat\u2019s not so bad, but the interest I\u2019ll have to pay after graduation is.\u201d Was she not aware that the interest might go up? \u201cNo, that was never communicated clearly to me, or else I would have borrowed much less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utrecht resident and art-school graduate Reinier (35) marches carrying a banner with the text: \u201cSocial mobility is a farce with 100,000 euros up your arse.\u201d When he was a student, he had to borrow a lot of extra money because of an illness, he says. \u201cThe increased interest truly came as a surprise to me; there\u2019s no way I can pay it.\u201d Couldn\u2019t he have borrowed less? \u201cWell, I really needed it at the time.\u201d But aren\u2019t the terms of repayment accommodating? \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel that way. I have to pay hundreds of euros a month toward my debt, even though I\u2019m not able to work full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Master\u2019s student Niels (24), who is studying Interactive Technology in Twente, was equally taken aback by how fast the interest rate went up. \u201cWe were all part of a failed experiment, but we shouldn\u2019t have to pay the price.\u201d But doesn\u2019t it cost money to borrow money? \u201cI don\u2019t think I should be held responsible for my 20,000 euros of debt. I didn\u2019t do it on purpose. If I knew then what I\u2019d be going through now, I\u2019d have thought about it more carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indefensible<\/h2>

LSVb Chair Elisa Weehuizen finds it indefensible that interest rates are quintupling. But won\u2019t students go on to earn a good salary that lets them pay back their loan and the interest with ease? \u201cNo\u201d, Weehuizen says, \u201cthere are also plenty of highly educated people who don\u2019t manage to find a good job \u2013 and they spend 35 years paying it off. And now there is interest on top of that, even though students didn\u2019t know that ahead of time. That\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister of Education Dijkgraaf estimates that it will cost nine billion euros to cover the interest on the unlucky students\u2019 loans. But won\u2019t that burden fall on those with lower incomes? \u201cThat is certainly not the intention\u201d, says Ait Abderrahman, president of FNV Young & United. \u201cTake that money away from major corporations and not from people who will be hurt by losing it. Invest it in education and in the future \u2013 that\u2019s what will benefit you most, as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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