Students had an orange revolution

Around 200 University students braved the weather and met up on Vor Frue Plads for a pre-demonstration against cutbacks on education.

There are orange flags and t-shirts everywhere, as well as banners demanding »More education, better facilities«.

Shortly after this, University of Copenhagen students join the mass of other students and apprentices on the City Hall Square. Music blasted from the speakers on the stage, and thousands of high school students, with socks on the outside of their trousers and Ray Ban replicas, make the university students feel out of place.

»I feel a bit old for this«, one uni guy mutters to his girlfriend.

Sociology and rap

Niels Vig, a sociology student at the U of C, is then diplomatically introduced on stage:

»The next speaker only has 6 hours of education a week. He’s a university student«

After more speeches, the demonstration makes its way towards Christiansborg, where the rapper Niarn makes for a festival mood.

The popular hip hopper, however, is not the only person to excite the protesters. Suddenly the Minister of Education, Bertel Haarder shows up in the crowd, and is quickly surrounded by a large and threatening group of students. He is serenaded with a less-than-flattering song from the podium.

Fuel for the fire

As people start to leave at sunset, the demonstration gets its second wind. Villy Søvndal, leader of the Socialist People’s Party (SF), takes the stage.

»Some people need to spend more time learning. Many of these are the ministers behind these thick walls« he points to Christianborg.

The leader of the Social Democrats (S), Helle Thorning-Schmidt is well received too. Among other things, she says she suffered from the same thing when she was a student – Bertel Haarder was also the Minister for Education back then.

She says it is time for a new minister, and based on the cheers that this is met with, most of the people there seem to agree.

uniavis@adm.ku.dk