The coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda, Catarina Martins, said on Saturday that the University of Lisbon has an explanation for the police intervention to remove climate activists occupying the Faculty of Arts, which she classified as “fossil musty”.
“The leadership of FLUL [Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa] police intervention requested to remove students fighting for the climate? If anyone has forgotten the basics of democracy, it’s not the students,” Catarina Martins wrote in a post on Twitter.
Has FLUL management asked for police intervention to remove students fighting for climate? If anyone has forgotten the basics of democracy, it’s not the students. The University of Lisbon has a lot to explain. What a musty smell. A fossil mold.
– Catarina Martins (@catarina_mart) November 12, 2022
The coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda stated that “the University of Lisbon has a lot to explain”.
“What a musty smell. Fossil musty,” he added.
The climate activists who have been occupying the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Arts since Monday began to leave the academic facility at 11:40 p.m. Friday.
In all, nine members of the student movement “End of the Fossil: Occupy!” left, four of whom remained on the spot.
The four activists were eventually apprehended by the Public Security Police (PSP), who removed them from the educational institution through a side door and placed them in two vans.
The information was confirmed to Lusa by Alice Gato, spokesperson for “End of the Fossil: Ocupa!” [António] Costa Silva” or “Climate Justice”.
The PSP guaranteed on Saturday that “only the force strictly necessary was used” to detain the four climate activists.
In a statement, the PSP’s Lisbon Metropolitan Command underlined that the arrest of the activists, “for disobeying orders to disperse”, was “the subject of extensive filming by the targets”.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by OCUPA FLUL (@fimaofossil.flul)
The spokeswoman for the “End of the Fossil: Ocupa!” movement, Alice Gato, had told Lusa that she was “disappointed in the bodies of the University of Lisbon Faculty of Arts for the use of police brutality” with the four activists arrested . .
In the statement, the PSP confirmed that the 2nd Police Division had been called to the scene, “at the request of the Board of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon”, because the permanence of the activists “infringes freedom of movement and teaching🇧🇷
The protesting students had a meeting with the Executive Board on Friday evening, but according to Alice Gato, the meeting did not lead to any understanding.
After leaving university, the detainees “were taken to the Olivais police station, after being released, after completing the procedural formalities, and informed to appear on November 14 at the local criminal authority of Lisbon – petty crime department,” said the PSP.
Alice Gato said that “the week was surprising” and that “the students showed their strength and determination” in a fight for a better future.
“We are not alone in this fight and we will continue to grow,” he stressed.
Currently, four educational institutions are occupied.
According to Alice Gato, the institutions still occupied are the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, the António Arroio Art School and Liceu Camões in Lisbon.
The protest ended at Instituto Superior Técnico, as students were forced to leave, some of them taking part in actions at other educational institutions.
The students especially demand the end of fossil fuels by 2030 and the resignation of the Minister of Economy and Sea, António Costa Silva, because they say they have no prejudices regarding gas exploration projects and because until recently they were President of the Board of Directors of an oil company.
The occupations, which began on Monday and have no end date, coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which runs from Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, until the next 18th.
Source: DN
