On 26 November last year, psychology student Marlon Uljee made the pages of De Telegraaf with a whining account claiming that he had been denied the StudenTalent Prize because he is right-wing. In the article, he claimed that the faculty student council of Behavioural and Movement Sciences had nominated him for the prize “because of my commitment to academic freedom, open debate and my contribution to society”. VU stated that political preference played no role whatsoever and said the StudenTalent Prize was intended for students “who make an exceptional social or cultural contribution, show a groundbreaking attitude and can serve as role models”. “The final nomination is always determined by the faculty board”, said VU.
Ad Valvas wanted to know more and approached the Executive Board, the dean of Behavioural and Movement Sciences and the faculty student council – but, as so often when it came to the VSP, the curtains were drawn. The dean said they ‘do not make statements about individual students or staff members due to privacy’.
During the night of 27 to 28 November, according to several witnesses, Uljee repeatedly punched a fellow VU student in the face in Bar Boele, after the student confronted him about singing a Nazi song, punching so hard that the student had to be taken to hospital. He shouted the n-word at a bystander. This happened one day after Uljee argued in De Telegraaf that he deserved a prize for his commitment to academic freedom, open debate and his contribution to society. Once again, VU responded that it did not comment on individual people or specific details.
Bad light
The mantra that no statements are made about individual cases due to privacy is striking in the case of Uljee, who repeatedly behaves aggressively and intimidatingly in public spaces, in the presence of numerous witnesses, and appears to get away with it time and again. He also repeatedly seeks out media outlets such as De Telegraaf, Ongehoord Nederland and Powned to place VU in a bad light. Apparently, he values his privacy less than VU does.
Last spring, during the student council elections, he and other VSP members intimidated and verbally abused members of the progressive student party ChangeVU and other students, caused damage, and applied offensive graffiti in the Studentendok, the shared activities space for students. According to several witnesses, he insulted a member of staff at the Studentendok reception by calling her a ‘kankerhoer’ [literal translation: cancer whore, Ed.].
The mantra that no statements are made about individual cases due to privacy is striking in the case of Uljee
The year before, during the 2024 student council elections, the VSP distributed stickers reading ‘There are two genders! Do you still dare to say it?’. These were reportedly stuck, among other places, in the gender-neutral toilets and around the Pride library. Yet it was ChangeVU that was reprimanded by the VU’s election committee when it responded to this.
Open debate
The VSP constantly talks about the open debate it claims to stand for, but it fails to turn up to last year’s election debate and never answers questions from Ad Valvas, because their earlier reporting on the VSP did not suit the party. When an Ad Valvas editor submitted a number of questions in writing about, among other things, the party’s stance towards LGBTQI+ people, she was mocked in a VSP podcast. After an article about the incidents during the student council elections, Uljee’s anger once again focused on Ad Valvas, ultimately resulting in a report being filed against him for libel and slander.
The VSP only broadcasts and never accounts for its actions. In videos on Instagram and podcasts on Spotify, the party complains about censorship and intimidation of right-wing students by VU, without ever making clear what they’re referring to exactly. All sorts of things are continually suggested, but nothing is ever substantiated. VSP members call for “the madness to stop” without answering critical questions about it.
Gagging because of woke
Uljee is, however, fond of De Telegraaf, which regularly give him space to vent about woke culture and left-wing censorship. On three occasions, he led a camera crew across the VU campus – not only from De Telegraaf but also from Powned and Ongehoord Nederland – past the Pride library, the Decolonisation Lab and the Green Office, to suggest that all of VU’s money goes to this kind of “madness” instead of to good education and research.
On the YouTube channel of Café Weltschmerz, run by and for purveyors of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience, two men nod in agreement while Uljee indulges in fantasies about woke culture and intimidation at VU, attempts to “eliminate the VSP completely from the academic community”, and the enormous success of the VSP. No follow-up critical questions, and so Uljee feels at ease.
The VSP only broadcasts, and never accounts for its actions
The VSP is clearly positioned on the far right, not only in terms of its methods but also its ideas. When the Pride flag was stolen from the VU campus and replaced with a VOC flag, Uljee said in De Telegraaf that “If you force something down someone’s throat, it is logical that people start gagging”. The VSP applauded the cuts to higher education, arguing that universities spend too much money on “woke projects” instead of on research and education.
Racism
But until the violent night of 27 to 28 November, they were generally not caught out on racism or Islamophobia. The VSP has a number of members of colour, and in a video on VSP’s Instagram account, a veiled Muslim woman advises people to vote for the VSP. It is striking that the VSP has never spoken out critically about the Gaza protests on campus. Uljee has also never said anything about the safety of Jewish students and lecturers – a hobbyhorse of many other right-wing parties. Last year, he was orating about woke culture at the university on the SBS6 programme Nieuw van de Dag when he was interrupted by De Telegraaf journalist Wierd Duk, who raised the issue of Jews feeling unsafe at VU. “Yes, that too”, Uljee said, before going on to talk about “gender madness”.
Uljee comes from political party Forum voor Democratie, whose founder once said that he did not know anyone who was not an antisemite, and where there are still people whom you can at least suspect of Nazi sympathies. Other members – for example someone from the Leiden branch of the VSP – have links to more obscure far-right groups.
Perhaps singing a Nazi song was therefore more than a student prank, and shouting the n-word at a Black student not merely a provocation intended to bait that student.
VSP members abandon the sinking ship
A former member of the university student council at VU had already left the VSP last spring because of the terror inflicted by his fellow party members during the student council elections. Both the Utrecht branch and the University of Amsterdam branch have also since abandoned the VSP ship.
Meanwhile, Uljee himself has been spotted on the VU campus again. He has cancelled himself, but the Pride library, the Green Office, the Decolonisation Lab, woke sustainability goals and the gender-neutral toilets have apparently not lost their appeal for him.