They are more determined than ever. Since February 23, a hundred young Sami and climate activists from the association “Natur og Ungdom” (“Nature and youth”) have been blocking the entrances to several ministries in Oslo. Protesters demand the dismantling of two wind farms, which the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled in October 2021 violated the rights of Europe’s last indigenous people.
Every morning at 7 o’clock, the young people settle down, in traditional dress, in front of the doors of the ministries. Every day, the police come to dislodge them. Wednesday 1er March, they were joined by the Swedish Greta Thunberg, who clarified that she was not there to oppose wind power, but to denounce a violation of human rights: “We cannot lead the climate transition at the expense of the rights of indigenous peoples”she hammered.
Low in the polls, the Labor-led Norwegian government appears to be taking mobilization seriously. On Wednesday, Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland, who was due to travel to London with a delegation of business leaders led by the Crown Prince, canceled his trip.
“We are exhausted”
The day before, Mr. Aasland, who had come to meet the young Sami doing the sit-in in front of the door of his ministry, had been severely rebuffed by one of the movement’s spokespersons, the singer Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen. “We are exhausted, and I cannot bear [de vous voir] seated and [de vous entendre] saying the same stupid things about us, which you have been doing for 505 days”she launched exasperated.
A reference to the time that has elapsed since October 11, 2021 and this judgment of the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of two groups of reindeer herders, engaged in a legal battle for more than ten years, against the Norwegian public company Statnett, responsible transmission network, and the Fosen Vind DA consortium, 52.1% owned by the Norwegian state, owner of one of the largest onshore wind farms in Europe.
Built on the Fosen peninsula, in the west of the country, it consists of five wind farms, two of which are located on land where reindeer herders have been grazing their herds in winter for five centuries. Although the Sami protested against the erection of the 151 turbines, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy turned a deaf ear, arguing in 2013 that “major benefits” from the production of renewable energy should “to weigh heavily in the balance” in the face of the damage caused to farmers.
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