Danish students strike and march in Copenhagen against cuts to the student allowance

Thousands march in Copenhagen

On Wednesday, 4 November, students across Denmark walked out of class to protest a government plan to cut the student allowance, known as SU. Organisers gave varying figures for the Copenhagen march, with more than 10,000 in one account and up to 13,000 in another. Student associations said about 40,000 students were on strike at 57 schools nationwide, and some pupils taped off their classrooms while at other schools teachers were locked into the staff room. The march ran from central Copenhagen to the Folketing, the parliament, where demonstrators repeated chants of 'Broken Promises' and 'Save SU'. Organisers said the demonstration passed without incidents, although police were out in force along the route.

What the plan would change

The government, led by Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen, wants to abolish the monthly allowance for students over 18 who live with parents whose combined income exceeds a set threshold. One account puts that threshold at 710,077 kroner (about 95,000 euros) a year, while another puts it at 700,000 kroner, so the figure stands at 700,000 to 710,077 kroner depending on the report. Students whose parents earn between 419,589 and 710,077 kroner a year would receive an amount that shrinks progressively as parental income rises. The allowance has been paid to all students over 18 in school or university since 1970, regardless of parental income, and governments of both right and left have shortened its duration over the past two decades. Students currently receive 1,154 kroner a month living with their parents and 7,426 kroner living on their own, as the chart below shows.

Living with parents1,154

Living on own7,426

Living with parents

1154 DKK per month

Living on own

7426 DKK per month

Data from the article text

Defence spending in the background

Denmark spends 3.5% of its gross domestic product on the military this year, more than the United States. At the end of October the government announced it would buy long-range missiles to deter Russia. For 2027 it wants to spend 22 billion kroner more on defence, almost 3 billion euros, and the allowance plan was introduced in an effort to fund that defence budget. Kieran Hindshaw, a 23-year-old agronomy student, said he felt betrayed by the government and criticised the cuts to welfare for young people.

“We get cuts to our welfare and to the economies of young people whilst they're funding corporate tax reductions and warfare.”

The timeline below traces the sequence from the October plan to the November strike.

Students' case and the wider wave

Oscar Tonsberg Hoffmann, president of the Danish High School Students Association, put the students' case in direct terms.

“In Denmark, we get funding and economic support for getting an education, and we're very proud of this.”

He told AFP that dismantling 'one of the world's strongest educational systems' would be a mistake. A 19-year-old student who travels an hour each day to attend a gymnasium, a three-year preparatory programme for pupils aged 17 to 19, said losing the allowance would make the commute hard to pay for. Protesters said they were inspired by European student protests, which in Paris got out of hand while in Copenhagen the demonstrations have so far been peaceful. The French protests spread to other European countries in the weeks before 4 November and widened into grievances over living costs and the housing crisis.