“14 arrested in Amsterdam university climate protest”

Fourteen people were arrested on Tuesday evening when a building belonging to the University of Amsterdam was evacuated. The police put an end to a climate protest by students.

The action started in the afternoon. Students occupied a hall because they think their university should cut all ties with the fossil industry. In February, the UvA announced that it would not enter into any new partnerships with companies such as Shell for the time being, existing partnerships would still be discussed.

The students think this is too meager and demand immediate change. The UvA initially allowed the protest, but did not want the students to spend the night in the hall of the Roeterseiland campus.

The fourteen were arrested for, among other things, ‘local breach of peace and rebellion’, the police said.

Last week there were climate protests at Utrecht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the TUs of Delft and Eindhoven and at the Van Hall Larenstein agricultural college in Velp, Gelderland. Even then, the police intervened a few times.

After the protest, Utrecht University decided to call climate change a state of emergency from now on. Erasmus University did the same. Later this month, activists also want to demonstrate at the university in Wageningen.