After one of Confluente's students tries to land a drone on the forehead of a Cosmos member, enough is enough. War breaks out between the international students of Cosmos and the honors students of Confluente. The government intervenes, keen to prevent Confluente students from entering Cosmos' territory. Accordingly, the first motion of the evening is, 'This house would ban people of Confluente from intruding on Cosmos soil'.

Arranged as in a parliamentary Lower House, the various parties fight it out on Wednesday evening. On the right-hand side are seated the government, with Our Cosmos and The Forum; seated across from them are the opposition parties Confluente, the Rose Party and ANCAP. After a short introduction to the rules and tactics of debating, the parties huddle in private deliberation. The increasingly pungent odor of sweat in the room leaves no doubt that everyone is hard at work.

Mini-parliament

After a little more than fifteen minutes, a member of the conservative The Forum opens the debate in the mini-parliament. The speaker wastes no time in making his point. The party believes it is high time that Confluente be disbanded and the money this releases be invested in building new study facilities.

The party's priority is to create study space in a familiar TU/e haunt; under the slogan 'Buy back the Bunker', the party piles on the pressure to repossess this building. The more peaceable Confluente voices dissent and believes that every association has unique value and the right to exist.

While Our Cosmos agrees with this standpoint, it believes a partition wall is needed between the two rooms, so that the two associations can no longer impede each other's business. The party's representative mentions a punching bag that was completely destroyed within a couple of days, and suggests that a wall is needed to prevent the two parties from coming to blows. The anarchistic ANCAP adds that actually it sets no store at all by rules and regulations and that these should simply be abandoned.

Debating goes on in this style, with plenty of calling to order by the chair, for another fifteen minutes. Andreas Panteli, a Cypriot Bachelor's student of Electrical Engineering who has links with both Cosmos and Confluente, finds it an informative experience. “I was a member of a small debating club in high school, but we did things a little differently there,” he says. Confluente's representative concludes, "I think it is interesting to understand how things are done in a parliament and I would really like to use these skills in future. I also have the feeling that as a party we are pretty good at this.”

Less strict

The show was kept on track on Wednesday evening by student debating association Chronos, whose chairperson Michael Stolk chaired the debate. Stolk thoroughly enjoyed himself. “I think it is going well. Now and then, speakers could be more succinct, but of course we are less strict than during our own debates. They are improving all the time.”

For Chronos, too, this workshop format, in which parties are assembled, is new. “I think it has been a success. It resulted in some interesting standpoints and discussions and there was room for humor too.”

At the end of the evening, only one team can be recognized as the winner. This is done on the basis of points earned with arguments put forward during the debate. Finally, the clear winner is Our Cosmos, which means that the victory cup may stand for the time being in the Common Room.