As Europe Cracks Down on ‘Eco-Terrorism,’ Liberal American Lawmaker Urges Climate Activists Planning Summer Shutdowns To Get ‘Much More Aggressive’

On one side of the Atlantic, elected officials are urging climate activists who have already blocked highways and vandalized art galleries to get “much more aggressive” if Congress doesn’t take legislative action to curb fossil fuel companies.In Europe, however, where the activists have to date been even more disruptive than their American counterparts, governments have decided they have had enough and are shutting down and arresting the most radical of these groups.On Wednesday, the French government issued a decree rolling up a group it accused of being involved in “eco-terrorism,” Les Soulevements de la Terre, or Uprisings of the Earth. France’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said the group “encourages sabotage and property damage, including with violence … under the claim of defending preservation of the environment.” The basis for the move is a new law targeting extremist ideologies in the country.A day earlier, 14 people associated with the group were arrested by France’s anti-terrorist police as part of an investigation into a December protest against a cement plant near Marseille. Wednesday’s decree also cited a March protest by the group during which some 5,000 protesters sparred with thousands of police officers at an irrigation project in western France. At least two of the protesters and around 30 officers were injured in the melee.Last month, German authorities took similar measures against a group of climate activists calling themselves the Last Generation, who have made headlines by gluing themselves to busy intersections and highways and bringing traffic to a halt at Berlin on an almost daily basis. Some 15 properties linked to the group were raided, and bank accounts and other assets were seized on orders from Munich-based prosecutors, who accused the group of running a criminal enterprise.In a sign of the growing backlash against the activists’ shenanigans, even officials in Germany’s Green Party have criticized the protests for being counterproductive to the cause. Chancellor Scholz, who counts the Greens among his ruling coalition, said during a visit to an elementary school that it was “completely nutty to somehow stick yourself to a painting or on the street.”“Legitimate protest always ends where crimes are committed, and the rights of others are infringed,” Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said, according to the Associated Press. She noted that police registered 1,600 criminal complaints in connection with climate protests in 2022, many of them during road blockades conducted by Last Generation.Groups such as Uprisings and Last Generation, along with another from the United Kingdom named Extinction Rebellion that is gathering momentum in America, have become increasingly militant in recent years in their protests against fossil fuels and what they believe is the existential threat posed by climate change. They have drawn particular scorn for vandalizing or gluing themselves to such notable artworks as the “Mona Lisa” and Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”The tactics of the European groups are being increasingly adopted by activists in America. They have blocked highways during rush hour at Washington, D.C., slashed the tires of sport utility vehicles at New York City, and attempted to deface artwork at the National Gallery of Art. Two members of a group called Declare Emergency were indicted and arrested last month for defacing an exhibit of Degas’s “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen” at the National Gallery of Art in April.Instead of condemning such actions, some liberal lawmakers in Congress are reportedly urging them to ramp up their protests. In a recent video call with some 125 members of Declare Emergency and other allied groups, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a member of the so-called “Squad” of Democratic lawmakers, said the activists should get “much more aggressive” in their tactics as they plan massive protests planned for New York and Washington later this summer.“We have to be much more aggressive in regard to fossil fuel expansion,” Ms. Tlaib said, according to the Daily Mail, which first reported the substance of the call. “If we don’t get the policies we need, if our legislative process is failing us — then direct action gets the goods.” She said Congress and the White House will not act on climate change until “the streets demanded it.”

As Europe Cracks Down on ‘Eco-Terrorism,’ Liberal American Lawmaker Urges Climate Activists Planning Summer Shutdowns To Get ‘Much More Aggressive’

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