Interruption of the TotalEnergies general meeting: ‘climate activists have the task of alerting’, says Elisabeth Borne

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Friday “climate activists” had “their role to warn” when they demonstrated near the general meeting of shareholders of the TotalEnergies group, whom they accuse of “greenwashing”.

“Climate activists have the task of alerting and saying that we must accelerate. This is also what the government is doing: we must all accelerate on the ecological transition,” said the head of government on the sidelines of a trip to the Côte d’ Or, while acknowledging that the oil giant has “started its transition to renewable energy”.

Six arrests

As a reminder, several environmental activists blocked a general meeting of the oil group on Friday, but could not carry out their project, held off by tear gas fired by the police.

At dawn, dozens of demonstrators attempted to enter the stretch of road in front of the Salle Pleyel, in the beautiful districts of Paris, before being chased away. The protesters then hung around, a hundred on each side of the stretch of road, chanting slogans, before dispersing around noon.

Six people were arrested, police said.