This morning, Climáximo supporters gathered at EDP’s headquarters to mark the company’s complete lack of responsibility in the current political crisis. Peaceful demonstrators tried to enter the headquarters and were stopped by riot police.
Yesterday, the population received a reminder that in energy projects the government and companies work in close and organic collaboration. These are the projects in which large multinational companies are involved. There have been searches, arrests and dismissals. EDP is at the center of this political crisis (as it is at the center of the climate crisis in Portugal). But there have been no searches, arrests or dismissals at EDP’s headquarters. In fact, for EDP’s CEO, it was a quiet day when he earned 5,000 euros (as he does every day).
Today’s demonstration brought this question to the public debate: if not normal people, who will hold EDP accountable for its climate crimes dressed up as business?
The protesters gathered in front of the company’s headquarters and made several attempts to enter the building calmly and quietly, while the police did their job of protecting EDP, pushing the protesters and displaying batons in front of the headquarters.
One of the protesters pointed out: “When we say that governments and companies have declared war on society and the planet, and when we say that this is a deliberate and coordinated act, we are talking not only about the organic alliance between governments and companies to destroy everything we love, but also about the active collaboration of state forces to defend companies from ordinary people.”
Climáximo stresses that changing the names of state officials to do administrative work for companies is a distraction. Serious accountability will only be possible when the population actively resists crimes against humanity. This is only possible if there is an honest and broad public debate about the state of war we are in because of climate and social collapse. That’s why Climáximo is announcing a new cycle of actions to begin at the end of November.