Climate activist Greta Thunberg was among the individuals detained by police in The Hague as they removed protesters who were partially blocking a road in the Dutch city. The protest was against Dutch subsidies and tax breaks to companies associated with fossil fuel industries. Thunberg was seen flashing a victory sign as she sat in a bus used by police to transport detained demonstrators from the scene.
The Extinction Rebellion campaign group had planned to block a main highway into The Hague, but a strong police presence, including officers on horseback, initially prevented the activists from accessing the road. Despite this, a small group managed to sit down on another road and were subsequently detained for disregarding police orders to disperse.
Extinction Rebellion activists have previously blocked the highway passing the temporary home of the Dutch parliament over 30 times to protest against the subsidies. During the demonstration, protesters waved flags and chanted slogans such as “We are unstoppable, another world is possible,” while one individual held a banner that read: “This is a dead end street.”
In a separate incident in February, Thunberg, 21, was acquitted by a court in London for refusing to comply with a police order to leave a protest blocking the entrance to a major oil and gas industry conference the previous year. Thunberg's activism, which began with weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, has inspired a global youth movement advocating for stronger actions to combat climate change. She has faced fines in both Sweden and the U.K. for civil disobedience related to her protests.
