Daan Stam<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cWe must make the government hear that education is not a cost but an important investment, a necessity in this country!\u201d MC Jason opens the podium programme at Willemsplein. \u201cWe are here so that the budget doesn\u2019t pass, and I ask you: Vote against it!\u201d<\/p>\n
The first speaker is lecturer Ana Uribe Sandoval from EURinActie. \u201cMinister Bruins and members of the Senate, we demand that you reconsider the cuts. We are here to say: dreams, creativity, higher education and justice are indispensable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim de Winkel from labour union AOb then interviews national and local politicians on the podium, including Sandra Beckerman, Luc Stultiens, Mina Morkoc, Theo Coskun, and alderman Said Kasmi. \u201cThis cabinet chooses to invest in rich people\u201d, says Sandra Beckerman (Socialist Party). \u201cThey prefer bombs over books. My grandparents didn\u2019t have the chance to study, but I did. Government policy made that possible. And it is exactly that opportunity that this cabinet is now destroying. Therefore, student struggle is a class struggle! Come on, let them hear it in The Hague: DON\u2019T DO IT. DON\u2019T DO IT.\u201d<\/p>\n
The entire square screams along. \u201cCome on, they can\u2019t hear this in The Hague\u201d, Beckerman rallies the crowd. \u201cDON\u2019T DO IT! DON\u2019T DO IT!\u201d The chants echo under the Erasmus Bridge.<\/p>\n
Annelien Bredenoord, the chair of the Executive Board, then takes the floor. \u201cThis cabinet is jeopardising the future of all of us by not investing in higher education and science. And that is not only foolish, it will hurt. The Netherlands will feel it if there are no solutions for the problems in society, if the axe falls on our knowledge economy\u201d, she argues. \u201cI would like to quote the words of one of my mentors in the Senate, Alexander Rinnooy Kan. \u2018Those who think knowledge is expensive, do not know what ignorance costs.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t
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