European Interest

S. Keller & B. Eickhout: Climate activism is not a crime

Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.5 Author: Norbert Kaiser
A view of the Nováky brown coal mine, Slovakia.

Commenting following the arrest of 12 Greenpeace activists in Slovakia for peacefully protesting at the Nováky coal mining site, Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout, Green leading candidates for the European election, said:

“The 12 Greenpeace activists from across Europe held in Slovakia for peacefully protesting at the Nováky coal mining site must be released without any delay! Climate activism is not a crime. It’s abhorrent that the people raising awareness of the criminal neglect of climate change are the ones being hauled up to face judgement. These brave activists should be applauded, not punished. Greens call upon the European Commission and on member states to clearly tell the Slovakian government that they must set the activists free,”.

“Nobody should any longer turn a blind eye to the urgency we face. Politicians convening in Katowice for COP24 have a solemn duty not to shun the climate reality staring us in the face and must act now while we still can,” they added.

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