{"id":46892,"date":"2021-03-12T13:31:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=46892"},"modified":"2021-04-23T09:26:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T07:26:03","slug":"polish-state-intimidating-youth-climate-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/46892\/polish-state-intimidating-youth-climate-activists\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Polish state is intimidating their youth climate activists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At least five climate activists are reportedly being accused of breaking Environmental law in Poland after participating in the Fridays for Future demonstrations during the European Council summit in December.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Fridays for Future protest in Poland
\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-46893″\/>
Fridays for Future protest in Poland
\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cI never thought I would live in a time when young, prosperous people — the future of the nation — are being bullied and hounded at police stations when they should be studying,\u201d said Antoni Po\u017cywi\u0142ko, a high school graduate from Poznan, on the Western side of Poland. He is one of several Polish youth climate activists who claim they had been visited by police after participating in the Fridays for Future demonstrations during the European Council summit on the 9th of December.<\/p>\n\n

At least five young activists, all over 18 years, testified they are being accused of breaking Environmental law because they used a megaphone, while other underage activists have been awarded a \u2018special guardian\u2019 for \u2018the welfare of the children\u2019.<\/p>\n\n

Antoni claims he was asked to go to court as a witness against his 20-year-old friend who wasn’t even informed that there were charges against him.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Fridays for Future protest in Poland
\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-46894″\/>
Fridays for Future protest in Poland
\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cI hope this won\u2019t affect my future and plans. I live in constant uncertainty and I am confused because of the lack of information,\u201d said medical student Micha\u0142 Fornalik.<\/p>\n\n

19-year old <\/strong>Weronika Wo\u017aniak <\/strong>who was co-organizing the Krakow walk says she has been summoned to a hearing for an offence under Environmental law but she refused to testify. \u201cI did not plead guilty to the charges because of the absurd use of law to repress activists. Currently, I am waiting for the letter on further proceedings,\u201d said Wo\u017aniak.<\/p>\n\n

Activists claim the possible consequences of these accusations could be serious even for those under 18 and could include reform school or limiting their parents’ parental rights. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\u201cAlthough I am assured that this kind of punishment will not occur, at this point I begin to doubt it. The whole situation is absurd, dangerous and repressive towards me and local climate activists,\u201d said Kacper Lubiewski from Opole, in the south of the country.<\/p>\n\n

Even without punishment the whole experience is already extremely stressful for both activists and their families, as describes 17-year old Agnieszka Kula<\/strong> from Nowy S\u0105cz who says she was first questioned in the police station and later at home:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cA month later the probation officer showed up at my door unannounced, saying that she was supposed to check if I was demoralized. She made a note that was sent to the family court. This time the judge decided not to pursue the proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Fridays for Future protest in Poland
\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-46897″\/>
Fridays for Future protest in Poland
\u00a9 Max Zieli\u0144ski \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Since all the cases have been connected with walks for climate during European Council meeting when activists called for an increase in the EU’s 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target, young activists plan to send a letter to foreign embassies in Poland asking for their support.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe would like to ask you to appeal to the Polish government and pay attention to the attempts to silence young activists whose actions are motivated by the need to ensure a future for themselves, which in the face of the climate crisis, is under question. Activism is not a crime, and in a democratic state, the participation of society in political processes is an unquestionable right of citizens,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n\n

Many Fridays for Future walks have been organized in Europe but activists in Poland have experienced the most intimidation so far. This is happening in a country where one of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants – the Be\u0142chat\u00f3w power plant – is located and where an estimated 50,000 people die every year due to air pollution<\/a>.\u201d I am sure that when attempts are made to silence us, we will not be quiet in the face of an unfolding climate catastrophe as it is our generation who will suffer the most,\u201d concludes Antoni Po\u017cywi\u0142ko.

<\/strong>Marina Kelava is a freelance journalist based in Croatia<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe would like to ask you to appeal to the Polish government and pay attention to the attempts to silence young activists…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":46893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[89],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-46892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-climate","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46892"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47376,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46892\/revisions\/47376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46892"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=46892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}