Minister Brekelmans leaves Room for Discussion after 15 minutes for security reasons
Defence minister Brekelmans (VVD) quit early this afternoon during an interview with Room for Discussion for security reasons. Demonstrators present shouted slogans and banged on windows. Board President Edith Hooge is furious. “This is unacceptable, we take this very seriously. Obviously, we are going to report it to the police tomorrow.”
“Extremely disappointing,” an organizer of discussion platform Room for Discussion called the fact that the minister had to leave early this afternoon. The atmosphere at the interview at the Roeterseilandcampus (REC) was grim from the start: protesters banged on the window and chanted slogans, making it difficult to understand the minister.
After only fifteen minutes, the minister was removed from stage by several security guards. “For security reasons,” said one of the organizers. After this announcement, cheers broke out among the protesters outside and they continued to shout “Free Free Palestine”. Broadcaster PowNed was also present and was besieged by the more than fifty protesters.
After Brekelmans left the room, those present were led to another room, where a replacement interview will take place. The police attended.
This is not the first time an interview at Room for Discussion has been disrupted. Earlier, it also hit Kajsa Ollongren, who, as outgoing defense minister, was also to be a guest at Room for Discussion. That interview was even cancelled twice and could only go ahead a third time with heavy security.
Update 5.10 p.m.: Brekelmans also reacted on Twitter to the incident. “I wanted to talk to (critical) students at the UvA about international security, but unfortunately this was rudely disrupted,” he writes. “At universities you should be able to exchange ideas openly. Very concerning that this was made impossible. Especially as Defence, we defend these freedoms.”
Update 11.15 p.m. : Board President Edith Hooge speaks on LinkedIn of “the lowest point” in free university debate. “A group of students and staff behaved so threateningly and disrupted the interview with the minister that we had to stop it. The open free debate was sabotaged, the minister was eager to answer critical questions from students, but he was denied that opportunity. Attendees were intimidated, our security guards were beaten. This is unacceptable. We take this very highly and obviously we are going to report it to the police tomorrow. This really has to stop.”
