Police action against Amsterdam students triggers parliamentary questions

The police broke up a student protest at the University of Amsterdam on Friday night. According to the students, the police used batons, pepper spray and police dogs on them and several students sustained injuries. GroenLinks parliamentarian Zihni Ozdil wants an explanation from Education Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven, Het Parool reports.

On Friday the students Marched for Education, against budget cuts in higher education. At the end of the march they set up a tent camp near the Roeterseiland Campus. They planned to spend the night there, but the board of the University of Amsterdam ordered them to leave, according to the newspaper.

When the students refused to go, the police were called in. The students were treated roughly by the police, they told Het Parool. Batons, pepper spray and police dogs were used. No one was arrested.

"If you let students who demonstrate peacefully be beaten up by the police, then you have little understanding of democracy to say the least", GroenLinks MP Ozdil said on Twitter. "I have submitted parliamentary questions."

The students themselves demanded an explanation from UvA chairman Geert ten Dam. "We want to know why the Executive Board thought it necessary to pull us from the field with police dogs. Especially since we are actually fighting for the same thing", Tijmen de Vos, president of student union ASVA, said to Het Parool.