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At first, the population remained somewhat passive in front of the world summit on climate change in Madrid, the COP 25 launched Monday, December 2 and continues until 13. Things begin to change. A demonstration of tens of thousands of people has swept through the capital from several points demanding that heads of state and institutional leaders honor their commitments.
With our correspondent in Madrid, François Musseau
They came from five points of the Spanish capital, Principe Pio, Vallecas, Chamartin, Atocha or Villaverde. All of them converge in the direction of the Cibeles fountain to say to the authorities and to all: " for a sustainable planet and a fairer world ", as a banner says. Another slogan says in English: " change your life, do not change the climate. "
The person wearing this sign is Juan Carlos Rodriguez, who runs a local branch of Ecologistas en accion, one of Spain's leading environmental organizations. " It is necessary that the people who participate in the summit, those who can act, listen to us and take action as soon as possible. They must meet their commitments by being ambitious. "
Activists and supporters of environmental organizations were not the only ones to march on Friday. The crowd was very heterogeneous: families, the elderly, and many young people or very young, who claim to be Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg . In the image of Alaya, a 28-year-old pediatric nurse:
" We are facing a climate emergency . It is important that everyone helps to stop what we are doing to the planet. "
The Spanish actor Javier Bardem, very committed to the defense of the environment, spoke at the end of this march for the climate: " We live one of the most critical moments in our history and for the first time, we are speaking with one voice, "he said, calling US President Donald Trump who had decided to leave the Paris Climate Accord" stupid ".
The event gathered 15,000 people according to the prefecture, but 500,000 according to Greta Thunberg. The latter Greta Thunberg was forced to abandon the procession after an hour. Surrounded by a swarm of sympathizers and journalists preventing her from moving forward, she had to get in a car to join the end of the demonstration.
In addition to this event, there are many alternative initiatives, conferences, meetings and gatherings throughout Madrid. Like this march, all these initiatives have the same objective: to shake people's consciences in the face of the climate challenge.