Local police were forced to crack down on protesters in Oslo and took aim at Greta Thunberg as she tried to block Norway’s government buildings. The environmental activist alongside dozens of other campaigners tried to obstruct the country’s finance ministry as they took part in a demonstration demanding the removal of two windfarms built on Sámi reindeer grazing grounds. Two police officers were seen lifting her up, one holding her by the arms and the other one by the feet.
Meanwhile, others protesters shouted at police agents, forming two lines around them and filming the scene.
The Swedish activist was only briefly detained before being released to join indigenous and environmental groups.
This is the latest in a series of protests and arrests the Swedish activist has experienced in recent years.
A total of ten people including Thunberg were removed by police from the entrance, according to a spokesperson for the Oslo police district.
The Sámi people, the only indigenous community legally recognised in the European Union, claim that the wind farms in the central Norwegian district of Fosen are endangering their long-standing practice of reindeer herding.
They are made up of 151 wind turbines that tower 285 feet tall, making them one of Europe’s biggest onshore wind farms.
Maja Kristine Jåma, a reindeer herder and Sámi politician, told CNN: “The constructions are stealing the reindeer’s grazing land. The reindeer are also affected by the infrastructure around the turbines, including roads. It disturbs them a lot.”
The activists, mainly teenagers, have been blocking the entrance to several ministries in the Norwegian capital since Monday.
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They are protesting a wind farm that continues to operate despite Norway’s Supreme Court ruling in October 2021 that the construction of the wind turbines violated the rights of the Sami, who have used the land for reindeer for centuries.
Thunberg said that it was an “international scandal” and “completely absurd” that Norway was ignoring the ruling, accusing the country’s authorities of “green colonialism”.
She told a small crowd: “The Norwegian government cannot close its eyes any more to the human rights violations that are taking place. The colonisation of Sami people must stop.”
Activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that they were “escalating another couple of notches. We have said we will shut down the state of Norway, department by department.”
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