- Nine environmental protesters glued their hands to the floor of the Volkswagen’s Autostadt museum in Germany
- The ‘Scientist Rebellion’ group members promised to stay until their demands to “decarbonise the transport sector” were met
- Another 11 protesters from ‘Extinction Rebellion’ spray-painted, then glued themselves to, several vintage Ferraris at the Paris Motor Show before immediately being arrested
Nine protesters belonging to a group called Scientist Rebellion broke into Volkswagen’s Autostadt museum in Wolfsburg, Germany on Wednesday afternoon and glued their hands to the floor of the Porsche pavilion. They brought their phones for Tweeting. They brought their lab coats for ‘science’. What they didn’t bring? A port-a-potty.
9 members of #ScientistRebellion remain glued at @Porsche pavilion in @autostadt. Usually @volkswagen lobbies politicians in Berlin & Brussels. Instead, we ask CEO #OliverBlume to lobby for the climate by pushing @OlafScholz & @Wissing to install a speed limit of 100 km/h. pic.twitter.com/tWBrrpcoUr
— Scientist Rebellion (@ScientistRebel1) October 19, 2022
The protesters’ alleged goal as they gathered palms-down around a Porsche 911 GT3 was to get Volkswagen’s upper management to agree to their demands and lobby the German government to “decarbonise the transport sector,” including, among other asks, by reinstating a speed limit on the country’s Autobahn. The problem with their process? Not only was it illegal, but also very poorly planned, as one protest member had to ask for assistance unglue-ing himself so he could use the toilet and seek medical attention for a swollen hand less than a day after sitting down.
And, as the Daily Mail reports, mere hours after the stunt began, participants began complaining of the lack of facilities at their disposal — “facilities” in this case being a “a bowl to urinate or defecate in,” which Volkswagen staff did not provide. In fact, museum staff simply turned out the lights and heat and left the group overnight in the empty facility.
“We are here because we know as scientists that there is a clear connection between the amount of CO2 emissions and the increase in temperatures,” one of the protesters, Gianluca Grimalda, said in a Twitter video. What they didn’t consider ‘as scientists’, or even as humans with functioning bladders, is that they’d eventually need to go to the potty.
Everybody poops. Yup, even environmental protesters.
Doctors unglued me with care. It is not painful at all, if done properly. I have committed to keep on with the hunger strike until our demands are met. https://t.co/oncSByGrA1 9/
— gianluca grimalda (@GGrimalda) October 21, 2022
Grimalda, who also claimed to be on a hunger strike, had to be extricated from the situation after complaining about pain in his hand and being told by an attending doctor that he was at risk of forming blood clots. He later Tweeted how doctors “unglued [him] with care,” noting that it was “not painful at all,” and that he planned to continue his hunger strike, presumably from jail, until the group’s demands were met.
After being unfixed from the floor, Grimalda was arrested, and after a total of 42 hours, riot police descended upon the museum to remove and arrest the rest of the protesters, including others gathered outside.
People protest during an autoshow, in Paris, France, October 21, 2022, in this still frame. Photo by Extinction Rebellion France /Reuters
Just one country over and two days later at the Paris Motor Show on Friday night, another group of self-proclaimed environmental warriors broke out the super-glue to adhere themselves to a number of classic Ferrari supercars, which they also spray-painted.
The ‘demonstration’ was over in just minutes, however, as police came in to arrest the 11 “Extinction Rebellion” (“XR”) protesters, who were calling for an end to the advertisement of privately owned vehicles – including electric vehicles – and four of whom had their hands glued to the cars’ hoods.
“Footage showed some protesters seated on the floor with hands pressed to the vehicles, while others unfurled a large banner reading ‘auto show of destruction,’” reports Reuters.
Keyword: Eco-protesters glue themselves to VW museum floor, classic Ferraris