101 mobilizations throughout Belgium to draw attention to the “Climate Affair” which begins this Tuesday

There were 13 of them in the Brussels-Capital region. There were 2 in the center of the city, which brought together a hundred people at the Mont des Arts and twenty others in the Breughel square, located at the foot of the courthouse, said the spokesperson for the police of Bruxelles-Ixelles Ilse Van de keere. No incidents have been reported, according to organizers.

The demonstrators dressed in homemade avocado gowns. They observed a minute of silence. They took pictures of the various events, which will be compiled. Speeches were made. “We plead for our governments to take strong measures to stop more and more,” said a participant in front of the European Parliament in Brussels.

In Antwerp, the action also took place in front of a courthouse. Dressed in black, a hundred activists wished to draw attention to the lawsuit brought by the ASBL.

“This is the case of the century: more than 60,000 co-plaintiffs have taken the federal, Flemish, Brussels and Walloon governments to court. It’s unprecedented. We demand that our governments stop exploiting and consuming the planet. That they put an end to the motto ‘always more’ to replace it with the motto ‘just enough’ “, we heard during a speech. Poems were also read before the action ended at 3.15pm.

The trial hearings are to last 9 consecutive days. Nearly 60,000 citizens have given the ASBL L’Affaire Climat power of attorney to represent them in court.

At the end of 2014, the association brought an action against the federal government and the 3 regional governments of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels in order to force them to respect their commitments in terms of environmental protection. The definition of the language of the trial required legal proceedings, which delayed the start of the trial.

“We were inspired by Dutch lawyer Roger Cox,” explained Sarah Tak, spokesperson for the Climate Affair. “We introduced our procedure on the sidelines of the case in the Netherlands, won at first instance in June 2015, and therefore even before the Paris agreements at the end of 2015”.

“A warming of more than 15 ° is dangerous. This is why the international community and Belgium have decided that it is necessary to stay below. But the Belgian authorities are sorely failing in their duty in this matter”, finally recalled the organization.