The Extinction Rébellion group takes to the streets of Paris to denounce the climate emergency
Audio 01:17
Nearly a thousand environmental activists from the Extinction Rebellion movement have taken over part of the Grands Boulevards, in the center of Paris, since Saturday to denounce the inaction of leaders in the face of climate change.
AFP - JULIEN DE ROSA
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Nearly a thousand environmental activists from the Extinction Rebellion movement, accustomed to punch actions, have taken over part of the Grands Boulevards, in the center of Paris, since Saturday.
They blocked traffic and staged sit-ins to denounce leaders' inaction on climate change.
This is the group's biggest mobilization in France, since the occupation of the Châtelet district in Paris in 2019. An operation called "the inevitable rebellion".
Advertisement
Read more
On the main boulevards, cars had to make way for Extinction Rebellion activists.
The activists first tied themselves to concrete blocks or hung from a wooden structure so as not to be dislodged by the police.
For Louise, 26, this action of civil disobedience is a way of
challenging the leaders
: "
This blockage is done to tell the future government that ecology must be a central subject of politics and put ecology back at the center of the current debate
”, she explains at the microphone of
Jeanne Richard.
Now a small camp is set up.
Young people laze in the sun between tents and haystacks or take part in discussion groups.
The atmosphere is good child.
Betting on a “new form of protest”
"
It has to go through an uprising of people, we have to move, we have to go out in the streets, that we block, that we do non-violent civil disobedience,
explains this 20-year-old activist who dream of a new world
.
But we need something new, a new form of protest and not just in the political space.
We need more.
»
Under the multicolored flags and a banner "
This world is dying, let's build the next one",
a retired resident of the neighborhood came to find out
: "I spoke with activists about ecology, we can't go back now, because we are a consumer society.
If we eliminate cars and planes, there are 20 million unemployed, so what do you want to do?
»
The blocking of the district must extend at least until Monday evening.
►
To read: IPCC report: to limit global warming, "it's now or never"
🌻 It's the 3rd day of occupation of L ' #InevitableRebellion at Porte Saint Denis
We always welcome you to bring this place of EXCHANGE, DISCUSSION, SHARING to imagine the alternatives of the world of tomorrow.
Faced with deadly policies, REBELL US 🔥 pic.twitter.com/DlGUulf5yM
— Extinction Rebellion France 🐝🌺 (@xrFrance) April 18, 2022
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
France
Climate
Climate change