Some 5.000 students demonstrated in the Brussels city centre on Thursday morning to press for measures to protect the climate, according to the Brussels-Ixelles police. “We are hotter than the climate,” chanted the young secondary and tertiary education students, who have been mobilizing in favour of the environment for months now. With Belgian and European flags flying at the head of the procession, and wielding many different banners and placards, the demonstrators called once again for a real climate policy.
"No party is credible if it does not implement a policy for the climate,” argued Piero Amant, a member of the Génération Climat (Climate Generation) movement, adding that the protests would continue until the elections to be held on 26 May next.
"There is a Climate Law that is in the process of being passed in Parliament and, for now, the Flemish parties are blocking it because they do not want to sign it,” he said. “But a two-thirds majority in Parliament is needed for this law, which is indispensable, even if it’s not enough."
The demonstrators are demanding a long-term vision. “Those who are living today are only thinking of themselves, but they need to think of future generations,” said one 17-year-old. “They are only looking at their short-term interests, whereas even we are already thinking of the following generations, our children, our grandchildren. We are looking far ahead.”
The Brussels Times
