It may only feel like a short while ago when Greta Thunberg was advocating for climate change action and was greeting heads of states and politicians from U.S. President Barack Obama to the Pope; to even addressing the United Nations and the European Union parliament. In the beginning of October, Thunberg was detained by Israeli authorities while she was aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla and has allegedly been subjected to terrible misconduct from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) ranging from being forced to kiss the Israeli flag to being imprisoned without adequate food and water. There has been no vocal condemnation from mainstream politicians, like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who supported her only a few years ago. In fact, in recent times, there has been vitriol spewed against her from some German politicians, with them calling for her to be banned from entering Germany.
This begs the question – why is the political establishment turning its back on this young activist who has been so praised for seemingly believing in the right causes?
The climate change proposals Thunberg was championing when she was a 16-year-old girl did not so poignantly protrude a finger at the evident causes of such as it does now. Perhaps, in a way, they were greenwashable and popular and were allowed to be woven into the structure of any stream of politics. In September 2019, Thunberg spoke in front of the United Nations summit for Climate Change, where she confronted politicians with the line, “You have stolen my dreams, and my childhood, with your empty words.” A year later, it seemed that the political establishment was neither fearful of Thunberg nor her ideas and invited her to the World Economic Forum in Davos where she told them “we have less than eight years to save the planet.” However, it so seems that the action for justice Thunberg desires today can not be done apolitically as it seems, to her, that certain politicians and dominant narratives have caused the level of violence and environmental destruction that we see today, “our international systems are betraying Palestinians,” she says, and betraying the need for action on climate change.
In 2019, Thunberg met with the now-UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband MP, to campaign for action on climate change. While the UK has recently committed to becoming Net Zero by 2050, the Labour government has been supporting a policy which arrests individuals involved in peaceful protests in support of Palestine and the group Palestine Action, which has become a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK. The UK government has not commented on Thunberg’s detention by Israeli forces.
In 2022, the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, met with Thunberg to discuss the phasing out of non-renewable energy sources because of the war in Ukraine. Von der Leyen has not commented on Thunberg’s detention by Israeli forces, and the alleged violation of her fundamental rights. Von der Leyen has been a defender of Israel and, according to an Irish Times article, millions of EU funds have gone into budgets which support the IDF. Her political cleavage too relies on the backing of certain environmentally unfriendly policies, like arms industries. Von der Leyen has recently “outlined a list of initiatives to boost Europe’s defense spending and military industrial complex,” according to Politico magazine.
Perhaps, more than anything, the current relationship between Thunberg and the political establishment is indicative of the changing nature of Western government policy, over the past decade, in favour of a blend of populism and holding on to the status quo.
