Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was arrested along with nearly 100 climate activists, for blocking the road in front of Rogier metro station in central Brussels this Saturday afternoon.
The blockade was but one of the multiple actions in Brussels today, including a march in which protesters from all over Europe and the Global South came together to call on European Union leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 as part of the ‘Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies’ campaign.
Greta Thunberg, along with climate activists under the banner of the United for Climate Justice (UCJ) coalition, sat down in protest blocking boulevard du Jardin Botanique outside Rogier around 14:30. The activists, some of whom had tied themselves to each other with lock-ons, chanted “The oceans are rising, and so are we!”
The demonstrations follow an open letter co-signed by over 130 academics that UCJ sent to EU institutions this week. It highlights that fossil fuel subsidies "distort energy demand, perpetuate dependence on polluting energy sources, and undermine European energy security, while subsidising industries that contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions."
Why now?
Despite pledges under the 8th Environmental Action Programme in 2022 to eliminate harmful subsidies, the EU has made little to no progress. “Last month alone, 10,000 people in Europe were evacuated because of storm Boris, and recent floods in Africa took over 1,000 lives. Increasingly frequent and extreme natural disasters are likely to claim a billion victims by the end of the century, mainly due to the use of fossil fuels. To avoid ecological and social collapse, fossil fuel subsidies must end now,” highlighted UCJ spokesperson Dr. Angela Huston Gold.
“We haven’t been given the results we wanted and a blockade is a way of saying ‘stop delaying,” said protester Ilan Henzler, 26. A member of Extinction Rebellion in Austria, he has taken part in protests for the ‘Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies’ campaign every month for the past six months. “By coming together in Brussels, we are raising our voices in front of the very door behind which decisions are being made. The new EU government is currently being formed and we wanted to use the momentum to raise awareness.”
The citizen's assembly outside the Cinquantenaire park and the march that started at Place du Luxembourg, both of which took place in parallel to the blockade this Saturday. Credit: Sabine Zednik-Hammonds / The Brussels Times / Belga
Police arrived at the scene quickly and announced that any protesters still sitting on the road at 15:00 would be arrested. Greta Thunberg chose to stay put, along with a majority of the protesters and, after being given multiple police warnings, all were arrested and taken to the police station.
The high profile blockade took place on the fringes of a climate march of over 200 people which began at Place du Luxembourg and ended with a ‘people's assembly on climate justice’ in front of the Cinquantenaire park at Merode. “We wanted to end the day on a constructive note and say ‘Here, this is a solution’,” explained spokesperson Xavier De Wannemaeker.
