School pupils climate protest to continue, despite chat with prime minister

Dutch school pupils who lead a pro climate demonstration in The Hague last week say they will press on with their campaign, despite meeting prime minister Mark Rutte to discuss the issue.

The talks between six pupils, the prime minister and economic affairs minister Eric Wiebes took place on Tuesday evening and lasted around an hour.

Rutte said after the meeting that the talks had been ‘tough’ and that the pupils are both ‘criticial and angry’ because the Netherlands has not met climate change targets. ‘And they are right in that,’ the prime minister said.

Rutte said the group would meet again once the financial details of the climate agreement published at the end of last year had been finalised. Those calculations are due on March 13.

Goed gesprek met Stijn, Caya, Damien, Dila, Pieter en Romy van @Youth4ClimateNL. Fantastisch dat jullie zo betrokken zijn. Na de doorrekening van het concept klimaatakkoord praten we graag verder. pic.twitter.com/ShzLeSb4gK

— Mark Rutte (@MinPres) February 12, 2019

The members of the group Youth for Climate said on Twitter later that although the talks were good, they were not yet satisfied. ‘So we will come up with more action in the near future,’ they said.

Over 10,000 school pupils took part in last Thursday’s demonstration, which was inspired by similar protests in Brussels.