Eco-activists who attached themselves to the floor of a Volkswagen factory and then complained that their hands hurt and they couldn’t go to the bathroom were jailed.Â
Late on Wednesday, nine activists from the Scientist Rebellion organization stormed Autostadt, a museum and car dealership near Volkswagen’s major factory in Wolfsburg, and cemented themselves to the floor of the Porsche exhibit.
They promised to keep protesting unless Volkswagen pledged to persuade ministers to decarbonize the transportation industry.
However, after only a few hours, they began to protest that they had no food and that personnel had refused to offer them a bowl to defecate in.
Gianluca Grimalda, who had launched a hunger strike, then began complaining that his hand was bloated and that he was at risk of blood clots after covering it in superglue and sticking it to the floor.
After only one day of protesting, he decided to leave for medical treatment and was detained, just as riot police moved in to gather up the remaining protesters.
Agisilaos Koulouris, another demonstrator, tweeted an image of dozens of riot officers inside the museum with the message: ‘They are arresting everyone.’
The activists are members of Scientist Rebellion, a group promoting itself as a collection of scientists ‘willing to tell the truth about the climate crisis, and act on it’.
They are urging Volkswagen, one of Germany’s largest carmakers, to step up in the fight against pollution.
Pictures of the protest were shared online and showed six activists glued to the ground in front of three Porsches.
They had also glued mocked-up newspaper front pages reporting on global warming to vehicles inside the showroom.
