The Hague’s local police detained climate activist Greta Thunberg and put her on a bus with other protesters who were trying to block the main motorway leading into the city on Saturday.
Thunberg had joined a protest by hundreds of activists and was detained when she joined a group of about 100 people trying to block the A12 motorway, which has been blocked dozens of times over the past few months for hours by activists demanding an end to all fossil fuel subsidies.
Thunberg waved a victory sign as she sat on a bus used by police to transport detained protesters away from the scene. Before she was detained, Thunberg said:
“We are in a planetary emergency and we are not going to stand by and let people lose their lives and livelihood and be forced to become climate refugees when we can do something.”
Campaign group Extinction Rebellion said before the demonstration that activists would block the main motorway leading to The Hague, but a large police presence, including officers on horseback, initially prevented activists from taking the road. The demonstrators waved flags and chanted: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible.”
Thunberg, 21, was previously acquitted by a court in London in February for refusing to obey a police order to stop a protest blocking the entrance to an oil and gas industry conference last year. She has also been fined repeatedly in Sweden and the United Kingdom for disobeying police at protests. Her activism has inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
