Bas Knapp of the Liberal Students’ Party asked questions in the University Council about the protests held by climate action group Extinction Rebellion in December, when the activists held “die-ins” in a number of university buildings. Knapp wanted the Executive Board to explain whether pretending to die for the climate and other kinds of protest are permitted and whether the university has a policy on demonstrations.
To Knapp’s amazement, Rector Carel Stolker began answering the questions by talking about the demonstration held by Extinction Rebellion during the Dies ceremony earlier this month. “The group held protests then too. We discussed what we would allow and what not and they stuck to it. This is the home of freedom, demonstrating is a fundamental right and that means that people must be able to talk about such burning issues too. And they can in Leiden.”
Stolker added that right-wing political party PVV had also raised the issue of the Dies protests in the Dutch Lower House. Harm Beertema, MP for PVV, has confirmed that he had asked Minister van Engelshoven about Leiden’s Dies during Monday’s debate on higher education. “I asked the Minister whether she regarded Leiden University’s invitation to Extinction Rebellion as proof of Dutch universities’ left-wing bias. We’re talking about a group that’s on the United Kingdom’s list of extremist organisations and Leiden just invites them here.” (XR was briefly listed on CONTEST, the UK’s counter-terrorism programme. However, the list has been withdrawn).
Beertema claims that their activities were not protests. “If the university allows them to speak, it’s an invitation, but the Minister carefully evaded the questions I raised.”
At the University Council meeting, Knapp said that he was not concerned about the Dies protest. “I’m not questioning the right to demonstrate”, he explained, “what I’m worried about is the protest in the University Library in December, which took place inside the library’s security gates. Lots of people reported it to me, lots of them were very unhappy about it. I want to know whether it’s acceptable to invest in staff and means to facilitate demonstrations in places you can only access with a card.”
“There have been very few protests so far”, Stolker answered, “but we have the impression they could be on the rise. We had all that fuss about Black Pete in The Hague as well. We’re going to make some rules about how to deal with this kind of protest and see whether we can come up with a protocol for demonstrations so we don’t need to give instructions on what is allowed and what not on WhatsApp the evening before.”
Knapp would not let him off that easily: “You haven’t answered my question. People are apparently allowed to stage a protest in the University Library without a card. Are we going to let farmers do that too? After all, the same rules should apply to them.”
“There are limits”, Stolker replied. “It would be unacceptable if the protesters invaded the staff’s offices. It depends, too, on whether they’re students or not, or whether the protest is related to our education or research. Nonetheless, if there are students who believe that the Urgenda judgment (requiring the Dutch government to substantially lower its greenhouse gas emissions) is the weirdest one ever, they should be allowed to protest against it.”
Vincent Bongers
Thursday 20 February 2020
According to the PVV Party, activist movement Extinction Rebellion’s protest at Leiden’s Dies Natalis ceremony (Founding Day) is evidence of Dutch universities’ left-wing bias.