Denmark, a powerhouse in education, also held large-scale protests calling for “salvage of student allowances”

Even in Denmark, which is considered to have a relatively well-equipped education system, students boycotted classes and staged protests in protest against cuts to the education budget.

According to AFP and the daily Copenhagen Post, 12 student groups from Danish high schools and universities held a rally at Copenhagen City Hall Square on the 4th (local time) to condemn the government's cuts in the education support budget.

Students marched from City Hall Square to the National Assembly holding signs with slogans such as ‘Broken Promises’, ‘Save SU (Student Allowance)’, and ‘Don’t Fool the Youth’.

Some local media estimated that the number of participants in the rally that day exceeded 30,000, making it an unprecedentedly large scale. Organizers calculated that about 40,000 people participated in the class refusal strike at 57 schools across the country.

Oskar Tonsberg Hoffmann, head of a high school students' group, said that Denmark's student allowance, which all students over 18 receive, is "the strongest education system in the world" and that he had tried to talk with the government about reducing the support, but had failed.

According to the Copenhagen Post, in the 2027 budget prepared last month, the Danish government decided to abolish allowances for students living with parents with an annual income of 710,077 kroner (approximately 143 million won) or more, and to reduce some of the remaining subsidies according to the parents' income. Currently, if you live with your parents, you receive 1,154 kroner (about 233,000 won) per month, and if you live independently, you receive 7,426 kroner (about 1,497,000 won) per month.

The student allowance system, which has been in effect since 1970, has been considered the foundation of Danish egalitarian education. The Danish Ministry of Education estimated that due to the system reform, about 14,000 students will lose their allowances and about 8,000 students will have their subsidies reduced.

Kieran Hindshaw (23), a university student, said, "A progressive government, including left-wing parties, has finally come into power, but I am angry that it is pouring money into corporate tax cuts and wars while cutting the welfare budget and increasing the economic burden on young people. I hope the government will change its mind after seeing these protests."

Denmark is in a much better financial situation than France, where student protests first began. However, the education and welfare budget was cut with the goal of raising defense spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. Finance Minister Peter Hummelgaard Thomsen said the current security environment "requires strict prioritization."

The protests that began last September with French high school students demanding improvements to their poor educational environment are expanding across Europe into protests against overall social issues, such as increased defense spending, reduced education and welfare budgets, and rapid increases in housing and living costs.

Human rights and labor group activists from seven countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, called for simultaneous protests across Europe on the 20th. On the same day, the 'Stop European Rearmament' group, a civic group opposing military spending, announced that it would hold a youth strike in 18 countries, including student boycotts of classes, under the slogan 'welfare, not war'.