In mid-October, opposition parties in the Senate expressed their concern about the ‘irreversible damage’ that the cuts to education and science would cause. Together with GroenLinks-PvdA, SP and Partij voor de Dieren, D66 submitted a motion to at least scrap the new cuts from the Spring Memorandum, but it did not receive a majority on Tuesday.
Subsequently, the supplementary budget of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) for 2025 was adopted by the Senate. Only GroenLinks-PvdA, D66, Volt and the SP voted against it.
For the ChristenUnie, the abolition of the educational opportunities scheme was the main objection to the OCW budget. ‘We could not have agreed to that,’ says Senator Talsma. ‘But now that the cabinet has made proposals to scrap this cut, we are still voting in favour of the bill.’
‘Devil’s dilemma’
The Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals), co-sponsor of the rejected motion, also voted in favour of the supplementary budget. Senator Visseren spoke of a “devil’s dilemma”. The OCW budget also includes the Kostić amendment, which gradually phases out subsidies for monkey testing. ‘Unlike a monkey that dies during animal testing, the education cuts are not irreversible,’ she explained.
A day earlier, WOinActie and trade unions AOb and FNV organised a protest. Teachers and researchers wanted to make their presence felt before the elections, they said. On Monday, despite the bad weather, about a hundred people came to Domplein in Utrecht to watch the EenVandaag election debate.
The trade unions announced a new protest: on Tuesday 9 December, they will go on strike and demonstrate in Amsterdam. Their goal: the next cabinet must reverse the cuts and invest more in education and science.
HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff/Bas Belleman
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