MPs to boycott teen activist
CONSERVATIVE and far-right French MPs said they would boycott a meeting with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and hurled insults at the 16-year-old, who has inspired a global network of young climate protesters.
Thunberg had been invited by a cross-party group of politicians to attend a French parliament committee meeting and would yesterday watch a plenary session from the public gallery.
But after mocking Thunberg on social media in recent days, MPs from the conservative Les Republicains (LR) and far-right Rassemblement National (RN) parties said they would not attend the meeting.
Recent months have seen millions of young people worldwide walk out of school on Fridays to back Thunberg’s demands for urgent action from governments to curb carbon emissions.
Thunberg began a climate protest outside the Swedish parliament last August. The Fridays for Future school strike movement has since spread to more than 100 countries.
“Using children to hawk a fatalist message about the world going up in flames, and skipping school and going on strike, that is a deeply defeatist approach,” said Jordan Bardella, an RN member of the European Parliament. “You cannot bring in the Joan of Arc of climate change while parliament is voting on the EU-Canada trade deal.”
The French parliament was expected to approve the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which has been criticised by environmentalists.