Greta Thunberg and dozens of Sami activists, an indigenous people of the Arctic, extended the blockade of ministries in Oslo on Tuesday to protest two wind farms still in operation in Norway despite an unfavorable court ruling.
“Today we are closing the state,” musician and Sami activist Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen told protesters, mostly dressed in the traditional blue and red costume of this population, which lives in an area covering northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland as well as the Kola Peninsula in Russia.
In addition to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, access to which was blocked as the day before by activists chanting slogans, the blockage was extended to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The police cleared one of the accesses of the ministry in the early morning by forcibly moving activists.
The protesters have since Sunday received the support of Greta Thunberg, who joined the blocking operations.
“We cannot use the so-called climate transition as a cover for colonialism,” the young Swede, known as a defender of fossil fuels, told TV2 channel on Monday. “A climate transition that violates human rights is not a climate transition worthy of the name”.
Activists have been calling for the demolition of two wind farms, in the Fosen region of western Norway, which they call ‘illegal’ since a resounding ruling by Norway’s Supreme Court a little more ago of 500 days.
The country’s highest court concluded in October 2021 that the project violated the right of Sami families to practice their culture, namely reindeer herding, in violation of a UN text on civil and political rights. .
If they had unanimously deemed invalid the authorizations granted for the construction of the 151 turbines, the 11 magistrates had on the other hand said nothing about the fate to be reserved for them.
Criticized for their supposed slowness, the Norwegian authorities have pledged to respect the judgment of the Supreme Court and have ordered additional expertise in the hope of finding mechanisms allowing electricity producers and reindeer herders to coexist.