The activist Greta Thunberg was arrested on Wednesday along with dozens of other people during a new day of demonstrations in front of the headquarters of several ministries in Oslo, Norway, in defense of the rights of the Sami community, protesting against the presence of two wind farms in their territories.
In recent days, activists had blocked the entrances to the Ministries of Finance and Petroleum and Energy. This Wednesday the gates of the Climate and Environment and Industry ministries were also occupied peacefully, reports the Swedish newspaper ‘Verdens Gang’.
Thunberg was evicted from the gates of the Ministry of Finance for the second time on Wednesday after the police had to intervene on Monday. She then went to the Climate and Environment building, from where she was expelled. «I will continue to participate,» she said.
The protests, which began last Thursday, have forced the Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Terje Aasland, to cancel an official visit to the United Kingdom, where he was scheduled to participate in an event with Prince William.
In October 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed against two wind farms — one of them Storheia, Norway’s largest — in the Fosen district of Trondelag, on the grounds that it jeopardized reindeer herding and thereby infringed on the right of the Sami community to exercise their traditions.
They have therefore called for the two parks to be dismantled and for the region to return to its natural state. Meanwhile, Aasland has offered to meet with the activists, who demand instead a meeting with the Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, because doing so with the Minister of Petroleum and Energy is like doing so «with a wall».
