Private jets blocked – climate activists storm Amsterdam airport

According to the police, activists from the groups Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion blocked private jets at the airport on Saturday, ANP reports.

Some also chained themselves to airplanes. Despite the intervention of the police, the protest continued on Saturday afternoon. The European Business Aviation Association wrote on Twitter that the activists would not consider medical flights either. It read: “As a result of this unauthorized insurgent flight ban, our members had to reroute a medical flight to Amsterdam with a patient on board.”

According to the newspaper “Bild”, another flight in the health sector would have been hit.

Neighbors joined in
About 500 demonstrators managed to enter the airport area by bicycle, among other things, others demonstrated in the airport building for fewer flights from Schiphol and in particular against private jets.

Residents of the airport who are fighting against aircraft noise also took part in the protest at the airport.

As Greenpeace announced, the protesters had prevented private jets from taking off from Schiphol. With a sit-in under a plane, about two dozen activists blocked a parked plane. “We demand fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets,” says Dewi Zloch of Greenpeace in the Netherlands.

Climate activists hold on to Goya paintings in Madrid
Two climate activists have glued themselves to the frames of two famous paintings by the Spanish master Francisco de Goya in the Prado Museum in Madrid. On the wall between the paintings “The Naked Maja” and “The Clothed Maja” they wrote “+ 1.5 C”, as can be seen in a photo. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement sets the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees if possible, in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

The two young women wore shirts with the print “Futuro Vegetal” (Plant Future). This group claims to fight the climate crisis by advocating for agriculture that uses only plant products.

Glass protects paintings
In Germany and other European countries, too, activists stuck to paintings or splashed food on them before the 27th World Climate Conference in Egypt, such as at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, where mashed potatoes were thrown at a Monet painting.

None of the paintings were damaged as they were protected by glass.

Meloni furious by Italian activists
Meanwhile, four young Italian women have been accused of attacking Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh’s painting “The Sower” with pea soup in Rome. The four women, about 20 years old, belong to the ‘Last Generation’ group, which had already caused problems in Rome with activists lying on a bypass and blocking traffic for hours.

A photographer who filmed the attack on the Palazzo Bonaparte in central Rome was also reported. According to Italian media reports, the artwork was displayed behind glass and remained undamaged. However, if even the slightest liquid comes into view, the climate activists risk up to five years in prison, Italian media reported on Saturday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized the attack as “pure vandalism that has nothing to do with environmental protection”. “You don’t defend an ideal that way, you just damage it,” Meloni noted. Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano described the attack as an “outrageous act that must be condemned in the strongest terms”.

Climate activists had organized a whole series of actions and blockades in recent months, including targeting famous works of art. In London’s National Gallery, they doused Van Gogh’s masterpiece ‘Sunflowers’ with tomato soup, among other things.