Thousands of students protested against climate change on the streets of Luxembourg City on Friday 15 March.
The immediate questions following Friday's protest were whether students will continue protesting and require time off. More crucially, many have wondered how politicians will follow up on the student grievances.
RTL-NEWS: FOTOEN a VIDEOEN vum Klimamarsch - "Youth for Climate Luxembourg" attackéiert Piratepartei.The organisers of the protest have publicly stated that they don't know yet how they will be moving forward and whether there are going to be further manifestations on further Fridays.
The Minister for Education, Claude Meisch, wanted to wait and see whether students will come forward with further requests before deciding on whether he might accommodate them on another school day.
A concrete reaction to Friday's event is that young people should be more actively involved, said Minister for the Environment Carole Dieschbourg. For her, the protest is proof of the fact that society is ready to join more alternative paths.
"The students are right that an emergency should be treated like one", said Dieschbourg.
Following the question whether the protest should be seen as a criticism of the current government, the minister said that students want to support politicians, in the sense that " they force us to act".
"We are standing at the beginning of a paradigm shift and it's clear that, despite ambitious climate plans, we need to take further steps in terms of climate protection", Dieschbourg stated.
The elaboration of the new climate plan until the end of 2019 should involve young people to a greater degree, Dieschbourg continued: "For this reason, we will invite them to participate in our workshops. During the last ministerial council it was decided that we will go to schools in order to hear the opinions of the younger generation."
Whether any radical measures will be taken as part of these plans has not been confirmed by the ministry. Dieschbourg was reluctant to give a firm answer regarding political support for the movement in the future, in case further manifestations should be planned for a Friday: "All I can tell you is that I find it important that young people take to the streets to defend their beliefs."
How they do this is yet to be seen, but it is not the place of politics to dictate this to the young people.
Nevertheless, the minister wants to encourage them to keep standing up for their beliefs.
She gives the following message to critics of Friday's demonstration: those who don't see urgency in climate politics, do not know what the IPCC Report is, and clearly haven't followed climate politics over the last few years. Therefore: "I deem it very positive that young people are standing up for climate protection"
KLOERTEXT: Schüler streike fir de Klima.FOTOGALERIE: Impressioune vun der Maniff vum Roland Miny op pressphoto.rtl.lu.
Between 7,500 and 15,000 students protest for climate action in Luxembourg City
