The two groups interrupted the event “40 years of Portugal in the European Union” at the Book Fair, where Paulo Rangel and the representative of the European Commission in Portugal were present, highlighting “their complicity, and consequent guilt, in a genocide that has already killed more than 60,000 Palestinians (of whom more than 17,000 are children) since October 2023.”
The event “40 years of Portugal in the EU”, which was taking place at the Book Fair in Lisbon, was interrupted by protesters from Greve Climática Estudantil and Climáximo collectives. Several people interrupted the event carrying placards with slogans such as “Stop consenting, start acting” and “Paulo Rangel guilty of genocide”, among others, and shouting slogans such as “Free Palestine”.
Filipe Antunes, a university student from Greve Climática Estudantil, states that “we echo the words of Greta Thunberg, one of the crew members of the boat, when she says that there can be no climate justice in occupied land and that there can be no climate justice without social justice. The fight for the climate and for life is inseparable from the fight for people, for humanity, justice and dignity. We will not stop until Palestine is free and this fossil fuel system is dismantled.”
According to Leonor Canadas, a Climáximo’s supporter, “both Paulo Rangel and the European Union and its representatives are guilty of the genocide that is taking place in the Gaza Strip. We, the ordinary people, cannot continue to consent to a global economic and political system that makes Gaza a veritable hell on Earth, invests in weapons of war, violence and borders, and puts its foot on the accelerator of the climate abyss by continuing to invest in more fossil fuels. History is made by people who, like us, have decided to put an end to the injustices of their time. Today, it is our turn.”
In a statement, the groups point out that “Israel, the United States and the European Union are guilty of the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian children, men and women, fuelling a genocide that is being livestreamed. And as long as ordinary people continue to condone this violence, they will continue to invest in war, borders, climate collapse and destruction around the world. We must stop accepting this system and take joint action now.”
