The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was arrested this Saturday during a demonstration organized in Brussels to demand the end of fossil fuel subsidies in the European Unionconvened by thirty European movements under the name United for Climate Justice (UCJ, in its English acronym).
Thunberg was part of the group of around 150 activists who staged a sit-in around 2:30 p.m. local time on the central boulevard of the Botanical Garden, while other demonstrators gathered at the same time in a festive atmosphere on Place du Luxembourg. before the European Parliament, from where a march began which ended on Place Mérode, next to Parc du Cinquantenaire, in the European district.
The famous Swedish activist and the rest of the demonstrators who participated in the sit-in near the Rogier metro station were expelled by the police, who warned them with a megaphone a few minutes after starting the blockade of the boulevard du Jardin Botanique that theyand they would be arrested if they continued to block the street, as ultimately happened.
“This climate crisis, which is only getting worse, is existential. Every second that our leaders continue to finance fossil fuels, “impact all future generations”Thunberg said before starting the sit-in.
Activists who are members of the United for Climate Justice platform, which brings together around thirty associations, are calling for an end to government support for the fossil economy throughout the European Union (EU).
Activists emphasize that this aid contradict the EU’s own environmental objectives and“fueling the global climate crisis, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities in Europe and the Global South. » They therefore urge EU leaders to “lead by example” and implement a commitment to eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies across the EU by 2025, in line with the Agreement from Paris. According to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), fossil fuel subsidies amounted to more than 400 billion euros in 2023 in the European Union.
