Three activists from Dernier Rénovation sprayed the facade of the Rhône prefecture with orange paint last March. They intended to denounce the government’s climate inaction. They were sentenced to a suspended fine of 1,000 euros on Tuesday by the Lyon criminal court.
THE March 22, 2023, the facade of the Rhône prefecture, overlooking the Cours de la Liberté, had been stained with orange paint. These projections on the emblematic building of the State will today cost their authors dearly. Three environmental activists, two men and a woman in their thirties, have just been sentenced by the Lyon criminal court.
This Tuesday, December 19, the three activists from Dernier Rénovation were sentenced to a suspended fine of 1,000 euros. In addition to this fine, they were also ordered to pay 76,000 euros to contribute to the costs of repairing and cleaning the facade of the prefecture. Money to cover the heavy cleaning costs.
The Rhône prefecture had in fact produced an invoice for 130,000 euros to carry out the repair work and cleaning of the gates and the facade. The latter is classified in the inventory of historical monuments.
“Our orange paint is washable. But the government is committing climate crimes that cannot be repaired”, it is with these words that an activist from the environmentalist collective “Dernière renovation” justified the projection of orange paint on the building on March 22. The operation, which had been kept secret until the last minute, was filmed and broadcast on social networks.
The prefecture targeted at #Lyon by environmental activists “The resistance we are putting up is to demand thermal renovation of all real estate by 2040” #IPCC #ecology pic.twitter.com/khLgJJAlEc
— France 3 Rhône-Alpes (@F3Rhone_Alpes) March 22, 2023
The court decision was qualified “abruptly” by the three convicted activists. The symbolic action wanted to draw attention to the climate crisis and especially to the thermal renovation of buildings. “I realized that to change things, we had to come to civil disobedience.” declared one of the three defendants on the stand during the hearing. “I never wanted to damage the building,” said another. His lawyer questioned the overall grade of the work, “while the paint had disappeared within 48 hours after the fact”.
“Orange paint on the stones never lowered the temperature” quipped the prosecutor, estimating that “All of this is likely to undermine the credibility of the fight against global warming.”