Climate change extremists belonging to the Extinction Rebellion activist group occupied a busy boulevard in central Paris for several days before leaving of their own accord on Tuesday.
Members of the extremist climate change group Extinction Rebellion were able to occupy the Grands Boulevard in Paris around the area of the Arch of Saint-Denis for several days without police removing the activists.
The occupation of the area, a busy part of central Paris, began on Saturday as several hundred activists took turns occupying the area and preventing traffic before eventually leaving on their own accord on Tuesday, French broadcaster CNews reports.
This photograph taken on April 17, 2022, shows an Extinction Rebellion group’s banner reading “the world is dying, let’s build the next one” during a protest at the Porte Saint-Denis in central Paris. (Photo: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the activists themselves, around 1,500 people took part in the demonstration from Saturday to Tuesday, as the activists used stacks of hay and human chains to block traffic denouncing the government over “inaction” on the issue of climate change.
“Demonstrations and petitions are useful, but given the urgency of the climate issue, we must move to a higher stage. Move to non-violent civil disobedience to challenge our leaders,” one of the activists attending the occupation told Franceinfo.
Paris politician Aurélien Véron, a member of the centre-right Les Republicans, expressed anger over the fact the Paris city hall and the Paris police allowed the protest to go on for days and has also allowed a large Extinction Rebellion banner to remain on the Place de la République.
Extinction Rebellion activists perform at the Porte Saint-Denis in central Paris on April 17, 2022, during a protest to raise awareness about climate change. (Photo: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Véron also highlighted the mess left by the activists, who spray-painted slogans on buildings in the area and left garbage in the streets.
“[Extinction Rebellion] left quietly to the applause of the town hall of Paris,” he said and added, “now, make way for proles to clean up the chaos left by these daddy’s boys who want to save the planet.”
The occupation comes just days after members of Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace occupied a railway line in Finland in order to block Russian coal shipments from reaching a Finnish port in Hanko.
Similar occupations and blockages of traffic have been seen across the United Kingdom in recent months. Last Saturday, six activists and members of the group were arrested after climbing onto an oil tanker in central London. Over 600 climate change activists have been arrested by police in the UK in the last two weeks over similar stunts.