Another big win for Activistenpartij in student council elections
The Activistenpartij once again dominates the CSR and the faculty student councils. That is the conclusion of last week’s student council elections. The new right-wing conservative party Vrijmoedige StudentenPartij and the liberal De Vrije Student failed to make a significant impact. What was surprising was the relatively high turnout: 21.5 percent.
Francesco Bruseghini’s radical left-wing Activistenpartij has won the student council elections of 2025. The party is once again by far the largest in the Central Student Council (three of the seven seats) and in the faculty councils of Humanities (eight of the twelve seats) and Social & Behavioural Sciences (seven of the twelve seats).The Activistenpartij is also growing in other faculty councils.
The CSR has fourteen members and is composed in stages: seven members are directly elected by all students, the other seven are delegated by each of the seven faculty councils. Given that the Activistenpartij also has many seats in the faculty councils, there is a good chance that they will also be delegated to the CSR by the faculty councils. This could make the Activistenpartij extremely dominant in the CSR.
The CSR consists of fourteen members. Seven of these are elected directly in the student council elections. Seven are delegated by the faculty student councils. The CSR members have the right of consent in certain areas. For example, the CSR must approve the main points of the budget and the house rules, such as those concerning demonstrations at the UvA.
The UvA Executive Board must also consult the CSR on matters such as the BSA, housing, and student welfare. In addition, the chair of the CSR is usually also the chair of the Joint Assembly (GV) of the CSR and the Central Works Council (COR). This GV has joint approval or advisory rights on certain topics.
So there is a good chance that Bruseghini – also founder of De Nieuwe Mensa – will become the next CSR chair. The Italian student also received a record number of 862 votes. The new chair will be elected as soon as the faculty councils have delegated one of their members to the CSR, which will then consist of fourteen members.
The Vrijmoedige Studentenpartij
New to the CSR is the international student party Inter (one seat), which takes a seat from UvASociaal. The once large UvASociaal thus drops from two to a single seat. The liberal De Vrije Student retains its two seats, partly thanks to the 713 votes for its list leader Pieter-Joost van der Plas. Despite a relatively high number of personal votes (269), the right-wing conservative Tom de Nooijer failed to win a seat with his new party, the Vrijmoedige StudentenPartij (VSP).
The VSP did, however, surprise in the predominantly left-wing stronghold of the Faculty of Humanities (FGw). The party entered the faculty student council with one (of twelve) seats. The party also entered the council of the Faculty of Law with one seat (of eight).
The relative loser this year is the left-wing UvASociaal, which seems to be struggling to tell a story that is clearly different from that of the equally left-wing Activistenpartij. Not only did the party lose a seat in the CSR, but the party led by Noor Hajra is also struggling in the faculty student councils. In the faculty student council of Society & Behavior, the party loses two seats to the Activist Party, which gains seven seats, leaving UvASociaal with three of the twelve seats. The Activistenpartij also takes one of the two seats held by UvASociaal in the FdR.
Each faculty has a faculty student council. The size depends on the size of the faculty. The faculty councils have the right to approve important aspects of their faculty’s education and examination regulations. They also advise the faculty board on matters such as compulsory attendance, resit opportunities, and study facilities.
Motion of no confidence
Since 2023, the extreme left-wing Activistenpartij has been the dominant party in student politics. In May 2024, the party’s first CSR chair, Noah Pellikaan, withdrew his confidence in the UvA board. He did so after the evictions of the pro-Palestinian squatters on Roeterseiland and the Binnengasthuisterrein, during which the then chairman was also arrested. The CSR’s decision caused a deadlock in the university’s decision-making process.
In November last year, the new CSR chair, Stefana Feciuc, also from the Activistenpartij, restored that confidence. Current party leader Bruseghini had previously indicated that he would not stop protesting against the university’s ties with Israeli institutions.
Significant increase in turnout
This year also saw a significant increase in turnout. 21.5 percent of students voted for the CSR, compared to 15.4 percent last year. The record was once again set by the PPLE faculty, where turnout was no less than 65.5 percent. Turnout was also high at the Acta dental faculty: 46 percent, even though there was only one party to vote for.
Once the faculty councils have delegated their members to the CSR, the members of the CSR will be determined and the chair will be elected.
