Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist, was taken into custody twice on Wednesday while participating in an Indigenous rights demonstration in Oslo. Police first took her and the other activists out of the finance ministry before taking them to the environment ministry.
Thunberg had joined protesters on Monday who was calling for the removal of 151 wind turbines from reindeer pastures used by Sami herders in central Norway. They argue that the transition to green energy should not jeopardize Indigenous rights.
Demonstrators have recently blocked access to some government buildings, putting the center-left minority government in crisis and forcing Energy Minister Terje Aasland to cancel an official visit to the United Kingdom.
The turbines, which were built on two wind farms in Fosen as part of Europe’s largest onshore wind power complex, were ruled to violate Sami rights under international conventions by Norway’s supreme court in 2021, but they are still operational for more than 16 months later.
Thunberg, who was carrying a red, blue, yellow, and green Sami flag, was lifted and carried by police officers from the finance ministry as hundreds of protesters chanted slogans.
Just before being taken away, she spoke to Reuters and said, “We want to make it very clear that the real crime here is the Norwegian state violating human rights.
After blocking the entrance to the Climate and Environment Ministry, Thunberg and other protesters were later removed by police.
Thunberg, considered by many to be the global standard-bearer of the campaign to end the world’s reliance on carbon-based energy, was released alongside other activists who had been detained.
Reindeer herders claim that the sight and sound of the massive wind turbines frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.
The energy ministry has stated that the turbines present a legal conundrum despite the Supreme Court ruling and that it hopes to reach a compromise, but that a new ruling in the Fosen case could take another year.
On Tuesday, activists revealed that they had recently raised almost $100,000 to help individual protesters pay their police fines.
