Greta Thunberg has been arrested again during an environmental protest in the Netherlands

The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been arrested this Saturday by Dutch police during a protest on a highway at a gateway to The Hague against fossil fuel subsidies.

The police then forcibly removed Thunberg refuse to voluntarily leave the roadand between two officers who grabbed her by the arms, they loaded her onto a bus where they placed other arrested people, while those remaining sitting on the street chanted “You are not alone” in English to the Swedish activist, as can be seen in the videos published by the Dutch press.

Thunberg was later released, said Rozermarijn van’t Einde, spokeswoman for the environmental group Extinction Rebellion (XR). Last October, the 21-year-old activist was also arrested during a protest against the oil industry in London, in which demonstrators blocked access to a hotel hosting industry executives.

More than 400 protesters were arrestedaccording to the armed forces, in the environmentalist protest that attempted to block access to The Hague, without success.

Thunberg had earlier joined several hundred protesters walking from central The Hague to a field near the A12 highway leading out of the city. Dozens of police officers, some of them on horseback, prevented the group from accessing the highway.

Carrying XR flags and banners reading “Stop fuel subsidies!” and “The planet is dying!”, the protesters maintained a tense confrontation with the police, who formed a human wall.

Some protesters found another route and blocked another road near the highway, which connects the coastal city of The Hague with the central city of Utrecht.

“It’s important to demonstrate today because we live in a state of planetary emergency,” Thunberg told AFP before her first arrest. And he added: “We must do everything we can to avoid this crisis and save lives.” Subsequently, contacted by telephone, she declared to the Dutch news agency ANP that her arrest had taken place “quietly”.

Soon after, Thunberg and other activists returned to the site of the demonstration and were arrested again.or, this time to block traffic at an intersection. No charges have yet been brought against the protesters, said Vincent Veenman, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

Thunberg rose to global fame in 2018 when, as a high school student, she decided to protest every Friday in front of the Swedish Parliament to demand action to tackle the climate crisis, an action that thousands of young people from around the world followed for months after and served to revive the global “Fridays for Future” movement.

Swedish justice last year twice sentenced Thunberg to pay fines for public disorder during climate protests in which she participated.

On February 2, a British judge dropped charges against Thunberg and other environmentalists for public disorder at an anti-fossil fuel demonstration in London where they were arrested, finding that police had applied “unlawful” conditions during the arrests.

“Wait for Greta Thunberg”: Grabois’ message of support

In a publication on

“Wait Greta Thunberg; my solidarity. “Whoever thinks that the environmental fight is “progressive” and therefore disqualifies it, has understood nothing: neither Perón, nor the Pope, nor Science, nor reality”, wrote the former presidential candidate on that social network.

The post earned Grabois some messages of support for his position and many others of disapproval.