Conservative student party VSP participates in the UvA for the first time. Who is this party?
The Vrijmoedige Studentenpartij (VSP), founded in 2023, is participating in the student council elections at UvA for the first time this year. According to some, the VSP is said to have a radical right-wing character, but what does the new party really stand for?
The right-wing conservative student party was founded two years ago by VU student Marlon Uljee (24) when he noticed that “students and lecturers feel less and less free to express their opinions in the academic environment,” according to the party’s website. Uljee was previously a candidate for the Almere municipal council on behalf of Forum for Democracy and, like the rest of his VSP colleagues, quickly gained a reputation for targeting the LGBT+ community.
For example, the VSP chair believes that a network such as VU Pride is favoured and privileged by the university, last year, stickers were distributed during the campaign with the text “There are two genders. Do you still dare to say it?,” and prior to the 2023 student council elections, he tweeted that he was “still being insulted and discriminated against more at university than many queers,” according to VU magazine Ad Valvas. Uljee himself has always rejected allegations of a fixation on the queer community.
The campaigns, full of moments of controversy, quickly paid off in the form of a successful election result. After the VSP got off to a flying start at the VU in 2023 with two of the eleven seats – a result the party repeated earlier this month – it is now focusing on expansion. The VSP is currently active in Groningen, Leiden and Utrecht, and is now also getting involved at the UvA. The party has submitted a list of eight candidates.
Party leader
The party leader for the student council elections at the UvA will be political science student Tom de Nooijer (25). De Nooijer is a familiar face to loyal television viewers, as in addition to his studies, he is active as a presenter on Ongehoord Nieuws, the talk show of the much-discussed broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland. He has also been a municipal councillor in Oldebroek for seven years. De Nooijer initially did this on behalf of the SGP, but after a “difference in political views,” he resigned and joined the Christelijk Verbond Oldebroek (CVO) in 2022.
Number two on the VSP list is law student Wytze Adriaanse. Adriaanse is particularly opposed to the anglicisation of education. “In my first year, I took a course in European law, where it was not acceptable to speak Dutch,” he said in an interview with NieuwRechts. Limiting the influx of international students is therefore one of his party’s key priorities. In addition to his work for the VSP, Adriaanse is also active as editor-in-chief of the online platform Het Rechtenstudentje and as assistant harbour master at Midden-Zeeland Airport.
Cancel culture
So, the main players are known, but what exactly does the VSP stand for? Obviously, the party has different positions, but ultimately, the VSP seems to want to fight against cancel culture, wokeism, and identity politics at the university. The party criticises the bias of the “left-wing stronghold” that the UvA is said to be at the moment, and says on its website that it strives for an academic world in which freedom of expression is highly valued and individuals are not boycotted because of their beliefs. “Certain ideas are being imposed. There is an atmosphere in lectures that you cannot say everything. In working groups, you are given assignments that are very politically biased,” says Lobke Jegen, the party's leader at Leiden University, in an interview with Leiden University magazine Mare.
The party is also committed to a positive approach to Dutch history, as evidenced by its positions. No apologies for the history of slavery, for example, but a focus on the positive contribution of the Netherlands to world history. According to the VSP, this pride should also be reflected in the veneration of prominent Dutch figures from history, through paintings and statues.
Budget cuts
Another notable position taken by the party is that concerns about budget cuts in education are greatly exaggerated. According to the VSP, universities have been in a luxurious position in recent years, and as a result, an unnecessary amount of money has been spent on “ideologically driven projects” such as queer feminism, gender relations, decolonisation and inclusion, the party states on its website. According to the party, the cuts would provide an opportunity to refocus universities and return to their “core tasks.” Or, as the party itself put it on X in response to a lecture entitled Gender Bending Queer Party: “As long as education can offer lectures like this, I won’t shed a tear over these announced cuts.”
