Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Interrupted during Climate Protest in Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM — Climate activist Greta Thunberg was briefly interrupted Sunday by a man who approached her on stage after she invited a Palestinian and an Afghan woman to speak at a climate protest in the Dutch capital.

Thunberg was speaking to a crowd of tens of thousands when she invited the women onto the stage.

“As a climate justice movement, we have to listen to the voices of those who are being oppressed and those who are fighting for freedom and for justice. Otherwise, there can be no climate justice without international solidarity,” Thunberg said.

After the Palestinian and Afghan women spoke and Thunberg resumed her speech, a man came onto the stage and told her: “I have come here for a climate demonstration, not a political view,” before he was ushered off the stage.

The man’s identity was not immediately clear. He was wearing a jacket with the name of a group called Water Natuurlijk that has elected members in Dutch water boards.

The incident came after tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Amsterdam calling for more action to tackle climate change, in a mass protest just 10 days before a national election.

Organizers claimed that 70,000 people took part in the march and called it the biggest climate protest ever in the Netherlands.

Thunberg was among those walking through the historic heart of the Dutch capital.

Political leaders including former European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans, who now leads a center-left, two-party bloc in the election campaign, later addressed the crowd gathered on a square behind the landmark Rijksmuseum.

Tackling climate change is one of the key policy areas for political parties contesting the Nov. 22 general election.