“Stopping the climate crisis is not at the ballot box” – Climáximo supporters interrupt the main TV electoral debate in Portugal
During the last television debate for the March legislative elections, Climáximo supporters invaded the debate stage with candidates of all the parties with parliamentary seats, with the message “Stopping the climate crisis is not at the ballot box, it’s in people’s hands!” and they painted the glass windows behind the candidates.
The Climáximo protest yesterday evening intended, according to the collective, to interrupt the normality of electoral debates that ignore the climate crisis and whose plans lead us towards climate collapse: water scarcity for people, disruptions in agriculture and food production, deaths due to unbearable heat waves, displacements due to deadly fires. On March 10th, Portugal will go to the polls to vote for the next government, after a green capitalism corruption scandal shook the already-fragile Socialist Party in November, and the Parliament was dissolved.
According to António Assunção, spokesperson, “The next government will have a mandate until 2028. Portugal needs to cut at least 75% of its emissions by 2030. In these elections, not only is stopping the climate crisis not the main issue, but neither party – with or without a parliamentary seat – presents a plan compatible with the limits of nature. Not implementing these cuts is guaranteeing climate and civilizational collapse. It is putting the interests of companies and shareholders above the lives and needs of people. Democracy is not a ceremony. The terms under which these elections are being contested are a perversion of democracy. We must sound the emergency alarms and act.”
António Assunção further adds that “We cannot allow them to continue taking us to climate hell. All parties premeditatedly reiterate the declaration of war against people. Society must resist and fight to stop the climate crisis. We cannot expect those who propose or consent to plans to destroy life – from the lack of targets to cut the necessary emissions within the necessary deadlines, to plans to increase them, as is the case with new gas pipelines and new airports – save us. Solutions do exist. It is possible to change course and stop the climate crisis. We need a real alternative to this deadly system, and that alternative is in the streets, not at the ballot box.”
Climáximo calls on everyone, regardless of who they vote for, to stop consenting to the current brutal violence and join the fight for life. The group invites everyone to consult the Disarmament Plan and the Peace Plan on their website, which brings together proposals formulated and discussed over the last decades by social movements, academics, popular assemblies, unions and technicians, – a realistic plan in accordance with the climate deadlines to cut emissions and to achieve climate and social justice. Climáximo calls on all people to stop consenting to brutal violence against people by companies and governments, and promises to return to the streets with disruptive actions. In the past few months, Climáximo supporters held dozens of actions, stopping planes from taking off, striking private jets and golf courses as well as the headquarters of fossil companies in Portugal and opening a conversation about the climate crisis through public disruption.