Judicial pressure is wearing down Spain’s most radical climate activism, with activists and researchers describing long court cases, criminal-organization investigations and fines as a demobilizing force even when judges acquit or impose light sentences. Alba del Río, 25, of Futuro Vegetal, said before a recent hearing that activists hold peaceful protests to draw attention to the climate emergency but are treated as if they were terrorists.
Del Río’s case this week concerned an action at Barajas airport, where activists glued themselves to the asphalt. They were charged with public disorder, damage and crimes against air safety. The judge acquitted the three defendants—two activists and a journalist—but a possible €90,000 administrative fine remains pending, while police continue to investigate the group as a criminal organization. Del Río has also glued herself to the frame of a Goya “maja” at the Prado Museum and protested in the Congress tribune.
The case is one example of how police action and fines are deactivating climate activism, including in more established groups such as Greenpeace and Ecologistas en Acción. Courts generally acquit defendants or hand down light sentences, but proceedings that last for years discourage a movement that was highly active until recently.
The recent wave began in 2018 with Fridays for Future, inspired by Greta Thunberg, and led to mass demonstrations in many countries. After the pandemic, groups including Futuro Vegetal, Rebelión Científica and Extinction Rebellion turned to more disruptive actions—road blockades, paint and airport interruptions—to criticize inaction on climate change. Dorte Fischer, a political sociologist at the University of Trento who studies the criminalization of these activists, said the state response has gone beyond policing. Across Europe, she said, the confrontation has moved from the streets to the courts, with detentions, large fines and criminal cases, and prosecutors sometimes seeking years in prison for nonviolent protests. She cited Roger Hallam, co-founder of Just Stop Oil, sentenced to four years in the UK for helping organize highway protests, and members of Germany’s Last Generation prosecuted on suspicion of forming a criminal organization, similar to the accusation Futuro Vegetal faces in Spain.
Luz Muñoz, a University of Barcelona professor researching with Fischer, said repression can reach any activist. The possibility of jail and the effects on work and family make activists reconsider actions, producing a “freezing effect” on protests, she said.
In Spain, one of the first high-impact protests occurred in October 2019, when about 200 people cut the Joaquín Costa bridge over the Castellana in Madrid. Police accused three participants of resistance to authority, and the trial was recently held. Prosecutors sought 10 months in prison over what the defendants said were false accusations of assaulting officers. They were ultimately fined €270 but have appealed because the penalty would leave a criminal record. One of them, Jorge Riechmann, a philosophy professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, said the process was part of a broader obstacle to peaceful environmental action. Another defendant, Marina, who did not give her surname, said it was her first environmental demonstration and that it had drained her desire to protest.
Paco del Pozo of Greenpeace was also involved in a case over an action at the port of Sagunto in Valencia, intended to block a US gas vessel. Prosecutors sought five years in prison for each defendant, but a judge recently acquitted them. Del Pozo said he had endured three trials in an intense year and had lived with bated breath because years of waiting and high prison demands create uncertainty. He argued that repression of environmental and social movements is increasing.
Other cases have ended with fines. Activists threw biodegradable red paint at the façade of Congress in 2022 and 2023. In the only action tried, the prosecution sought almost two years in prison, but the judge imposed a €1,400 fine on four defendants for damage to historical heritage. Mauricio Misquero, who took part in actions with Rebelión Científica and Futuro Vegetal, said repression has been an important factor in deactivating such protests, though he also said the issue has lost some topicality as housing, Palestine and other social causes receive more attention. He has two other cases pending and has abandoned this type of action.
Chavi Vicente, spokesperson for Rebelión o Extinción, said authorities are using the “ley mordaza” to impose fines without trials, including €600 sanctions for putting up a banner in the street, and are stretching trials over five or six years, which demobilizes people. The collective still has many pending proceedings.
Javier Raboso of Greenpeace described a “pena de banquillo”—time spent in the dock—that lasts four or five years and leads activists to stop protesting. Javier Andaluz of Ecologistas en Acción said judicial proceedings inhibit people from taking part in more protests and carry a huge emotional cost. Riechmann said the legal processes are a strong obstacle to the peaceful environmental actions that are needed, and that climate protest has declined sharply in recent years as the planet’s situation worsens.
Amnesty International also criticized the authorities’ response. Daniel Canales said there is criminalization of peaceful protest and civil disobedience, increasingly severe penalty requests and criminal proceedings that drag on for years. The organization demands repeal of the ley mordaza and changes to the Criminal Code to guarantee the right to peaceful protest.
The article traces the radical tactic to 2022, when two Futuro Vegetal activists glued themselves to the frames of Goya’s “majas” at the Prado, bringing to Spain a form of protest launched by Just Stop Oil in the UK. The actions were meant to inconvenience and provoke thought, not to damage heritage, though activists did damage a painting at the Museo Naval. Four years later, the police investigation into the group as a criminal organization has deactivated the movement, according to founder Bilbo Basaterra. He said the accusation and legal cases consume energy and discourage new activists from joining.
Another founder, Victòria Domingo, was acquitted in the Barajas case and faces another trial next week over throwing red paint at the Government Delegation in Barcelona. She said repression has hurt the collective, especially the criminal-organization accusation and police infiltrations. She criticized authorities for repressing those who warned about climate disasters such as danas, fires and heatwaves instead of acting on the emergency. Futuro Vegetal still faces cases over protests at Ibiza airport, the Goya painting action, actions at the Government Subdelegation in Córdoba and the Granada summit, as well as the criminal-organization investigation.
Domingo said after the acquittal that the group had accumulated 140 hours in detentions and holding cells and that activists are treated violently to stop them protesting. Del Río concluded that people are losing the will to protest and that the psychological toll is enormous, adding that she feels powerless that nothing is being done to stop climate change.
Sources: El País Sociedad.