Students demonstrate against cuts in education in front of the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, Denmark, during a nationwide protest of high school students against the government's student grant plans on November 4, 2026. Thousands of young Danes were expected to take to the streets to protest against the government's plan to cut state-paid student allowances to free up funds for defence spending. (Photo by Ida Marie Odgaard / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
Copenhagen: Thousands of young Danes are expected to take to the streets on Wednesday to protest over the government's plan to cut state-paid student allowances, adding to a wave of European youth anger.
Under the banner "Enough is Enough", 11 high school and university student associations plan to gather at Copenhagen's City Hall Square from 12:30 pm (1130 GMT), before marching to parliament over the proposed cuts to free up funds for defence spending.
In recent weeks student protests in France have spread to other European countries, and Copenhagen police have said they plan to be highly visible during Wednesday's demonstration.
According to the Danish High School Students' Association, around 10,000 young people are expected in the capital, while other demonstrations are also planned in the rest of the country.
In its draft budget bill, Denmark's centre-left government plans to abolish the state-paid student allowance (SU) for students who live with their parents and whose parents' total annual income exceeds 700,000 Danish kroner ($104,440).
The amount students receive would be progressive for all students who live with their parents and whose parents earn between 419,589 kroner and 700,000 kroner a year.
The SU has until now been given to all students over the age of 18, which means both high school and university students receive it.
The move is aimed at freeing up funds to pay for the government's increased defence spending.
According to the Higher Education Ministry, around 14,000 students are expected to lose their grant entirely, and some 8,000 would see it reduced.
In force since 1970, SU is one of the cornerstones of Denmark's egalitarian university system, enabling all young people to get an education regardless of their parents' income.
The amount students currently receive is 1,154 kroner ($173) a month for those who live with their parents, and 7,426 kroner ($1,111) for those who live on their own.
The government has also proposed that unemployment benefits for recent university graduates be paid only to those who have worked during 18 of the last 24 months of their studies.
Organisers have insisted the protest will be "peaceful".
Hostility towards education
"When you deliberately choose to take money out of the pockets of young people who are studying, it's hard to see it as anything other than hostility towards education," said the president of the Danish High School Students' Association, Oscar Tonsberg Hoffmann.
"We're not skipping classes for fun, but to show political decision-makers how seriously we take their cuts to our opportunities to study," he said in a statement.
Some 30,000 high school students across 40 schools plan to go on strike on Wednesday.
Tonsberg Hoffmann said high school organisations have tried to have a dialogue with the government, but without success.
"When, on the one hand you save money on the backs of young people who are studying and, on the other, you refuse to answer to us for it, in my view it's quite simply pissing on future generations," he fumed.
Within the government, the Socialist People's Party and the Social Liberal Party had until now opposed any cuts to education but have nonetheless defended the proposal.
Interior and Economic Affairs Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr has in particular had to explain herself, as she had vowed that her Socialist People's Party would not touch the student grant system.
"It's no secret that this is not an initiative that comes from us. But we have made compromises in this government, and I fully stand by them," she said.
Industry Minister and Social Liberal Party leader Martin Lidegaard has meanwhile said that the cuts "are not pleasant decisions. This is economically responsible policy."
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