This morning, a group of four Climáximo supporters made a slow march down Rua dos Sapadores, warning society not to continue consenting to the genocide caused by the climate crisis. The protest had been previously notified to the Lisbon City Council, but halfway through the march, the PSP intervened and stopped the march, and two people were arrested without justification.
Despite some protests from motorists against the demonstration, popular support was heard along the march route, with clapping and various expressions of support, and some people even took the place of the detainees behind the banner that read “The climate crisis is genocide”.
The two people were taken to Lisbon’s Penha de França police station and released five hours later after being identified and charged with disobedience and obstructing traffic.
After some Climáximo supporters who were distributing leaflets in the Lisbon metro yesterday to sensitize the population to take action and “join the climate resistance” were also prevented from continuing, the collective denounced what they consider to be “the state’s destructive action”, just 50 years after the Carnation Revolution.
Sara Gaspar, one of the spokespersons, points out: “At the trial of the eleven people who blocked the Duarte Pacheco viaduct, the judge didn’t allow a manifesto on the climate crisis, the reason for the protest, to be read; when we hand out leaflets in the metro and talk to passengers, we are also prevented from doing so. And today, even when we’re on a pre-announced march, we’re again being restricted from exercising the rights we won on April 25. Everyone has the right and the duty to resist the war that has been deliberately and consciously declared against life for decades by governments and corporations, and we will continue to resist. The mounting evidence is undeniable: it’s not those who are responsible for the climate crisis who will stop it. If we, the people, don’t resist and create the necessary change, we will be complicit in genocide.” Are we going to consent to destruction, or are we going to resist and stop this war on humanity?