Dutch students’ anti-climate change strike, 7 February

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Dutch students' climate change protest organisers, Stijn Warmenhoven on the right, NOS photo

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

‘We should also do this’, after Belgium also climate march in the Netherlands

With the 35,000 Belgian pro-climate truants on today’s march as a big example, Dutch students also want to hold a climate march. The protest must take place on 7 February in The Hague.

The organization is in the hands of a group of students from the Dalton school in The Hague. Stijn Warmenhoven from 6 VWO is the spokesperson. “I saw on the news that thousands of young people were demonstrating in Belgium, and then I sent a message to a number of friends with: guys, we must do this, we also need to stand up for the climate in the Netherlands.”

… “We want to prepare ourselves as well as possible, so that the climate march will work just as well as in Belgium.”

The goal of the march is to move politics to action, says Warmenhoven. “You can not deny that there is climate change, and our generation is the last one who can do something about it, and we hope that politicians will listen and come up with changes that we can do something about.”

The student says he is disappointed in the recently presented climate agreement [of the Dutch government]. “Unfortunately, it is mainly the citizens who have to change, well, of course they have to change, but the big corporations that emit a lot of pollution have to change as well, and the climate agreement is not strict enough for them.”

3000 participants

The organizers hope for at least 3000 participants for the march. It is certain that there will be a start on the Malieveld. How the route then goes is discussed with the municipality of The Hague.

As in Belgium, the Dutch students want to protest different on Thursdays in a row. Even if they actually have to go to school on those days, one of the initiators says. “Truancy is actually against my principles, but if it is for a just cause, then truancy should be part of it at the moment.”