Greta Thunberg slams world leaders who take selfies with her to make it 'seem like they care' about climate
Greta Thunberg has lashed out at “presidents, prime ministers, kings, and princesses” saying they only want to bolster their image by being photographed with her. Thunberg revealed, as part of a new Swedish radio series about her campaigning, that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had waited to have a "selfie" clicked with the teenager during the U.N. climate gathering in New York last year.
It was the same event where the Swedish climate activist delivered her sensational “how dare you” speech. “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she told world leaders gathered at the summit.
As reported by the Guardian, the teenage firebrand was critical of the way global leaders and other high-profile figures had behaved after her speech. "Presidents, prime ministers, kings, and princesses came and wanted to talk to me," she said on the radio program. "They saw me and suddenly saw the chance that they could take a photo with me for their Instagram account. Then the hashtag #savetheplanet."
"It seemed as if they had forgotten for a moment to be ashamed that their generation had let future generations down," she added.
In a later interview with the BBC, Thunberg followed up her comments by saying she had a "dislike" for politicians like Merkel who allegedly sought to capitalize on her fame by getting photographs with her. “To be fair, it was not only her, it was many,” she said, when asked about Merkel. “And those kinds of things happen all the time. People just want to stand next to me and other climate activists. They can post it on social media and it makes them look good, it makes them seem like they care.”
Having said that, Thunberg's popularity far exceeds world leaders who seek to align their causes with her. Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway showered the climate crusader with praise last year, posting an Instagram clip of Thunberg at the U.N. and the hashtag #ImWithGreta.
Thunberg issued another warning to world leaders just a few weeks later, telling a crowd in Italy that “we will make sure we put world leaders against the wall” if they did not comply with her demands.
“Unfortunately, we probably already know the outcome. World leaders are still trying to run away from their responsibilities but we have to make sure they cannot do that. We will make sure that we put them against the wall and they will have to do their job to protect our futures,” she said, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
Earlier this month, Thunberg called on EU leaders to officially condemn “police brutality and attacks on the free press” amid Black Lives Matter protests in the US. She took to Twitter to respond to a video of a 75-year-old man who was shoved by two police officers on the sidewalk, in Buffalo, New York.
“Still waiting for the EU and individual democratic nations to officially condemn the police brutality and attacks on the free press escalating the USA. For how long are we going to stand by, watch and say nothing?” Thunberg wrote on Twitter amid nationwide protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd.