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As Europe criminalizes environmental protest, some activists turn to sabotage
(www.motherjones.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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UK is in Europe. They have left the EU but are still in Europe.
Read the article, it mentions several EU countries where acts of sabotage have been increasing.
Criminalization does not mean “applying the laws”, or at least that is only one aspect of it. It can also mean creating new laws or even have nothing to do with the actual legal framework. In France for example, the government has taken the nasty habit of publically branding nature activists as terrorists. That is a form of criminalization even if it remains largely symbolical.
It can also mean that prosecution takes a harder stance or uses a different, harsher legal framework. In France again, vandalism and destruction of private or public property is of course illegal. However the definition of terrorism is rather loose and can also includes acts of sabotage.
So when nature activists break the law to perform acts of sabotage, the prosecution can choose to decide that it was vandalism and treat it as such, or as terrorism and treat it as such. The latter not only allows harsher punishment, but also gives police and prosecution much larger means and leeway, leveraging legislation that was passed not to fight political activism or sabotage, but as a reaction to a whole other kind of terrorism, you know, the kind that haphazardly murders dozens if not hundreds of citizens.
Criminalization can also mean allowing or encouraging the police to respond much more violently to peaceful protests, or the authorities trying to suppress various organisations taking isolated acts of sabotage as an excuse.
Edit: talking about France because that’s what I know best but there is a similar trend in several other Western European countries.
Oh REALLY!!! Do you have MORE information everybody know???
How does that justify writing protests are being made illegal in Europe as if it's all of Europe???
It's a bullshit headline plain and simple.
No not "also" that's LITERALLY what it means, that laws are changed to make it illegal, when previously it was not. and that happened in UK under Boris Johnson. There is nothing comparable in other European countries.
Wow. Chatgpt really is coming along.