The students' action last Wednesday proved to be the final straw for the board: a building was occupied ("it was a break-in, that has an escalating effect"), there was a demonstration in the street and torches were lit on the balcony of the building at 80-82 Grote Gracht. By late morning – while a delegation of the protesters was already in talks with the board at the Minderbroedersberg - she received worrying signals from the Maastricht "security triangle" (police, public prosecutor and mayor). A "large group" of troublemakers was reportedly planning to come to FASoS to harass the demonstrating students. "That sounded realistic enough to me." In the early afternoon, protesters on the street asked if the previously closed gate of FASoS could be reopened. "They were scared and wanted to return to the tent camp. On the condition that the students ín the building would then leave that too, we allowed it."
Voluntary departure?
For the board, this was the limit. "We were effectively recreating the occupation of the garden. I could no longer justify this to the municipality, I could no longer guarantee the safety of the students and of the neighborhood. Not to mention the safe workplace of FASoS staff, who did not all appreciate the presence of the tent camp. It had to stop, and we told the delegation so. For me, the negotiations from then on were about how to arrange this in a good way, without police intervention."
In short, the students had long known that they would be formally asked to leave if they stayed, she says. "And they themselves asked for more time to leave - which they got, until 7:00 PM." And that 'voluntary'? "By that, I meant they left at our request, but without any force being used."
The protesters see it completely differently: on their Instagram account, they state that they were suddenly informed by email late in the afternoon that they had to be gone by 6:00 PM - within twenty minutes - or the police would come and charge them with trespassing. A "voluntary" departure? That's a lie, they write.
Precautionary measure
According to Letschert, no damage was done, but time is needed to clean and tidy up everything. Today, only people with a UM card were allowed into other university buildings. The buildings also close between 6:00 and 7:00 PM: a precautionary measure due to a pro-Palestinian demonstration (by various groups) taking place in the city center tonight. Whether it will stop at UM buildings is still unknown. No promises have been made to the demonstrating students about their demands, Letschert says: "That process runs through the representative bodies."