Climate activists block street with topless demonstration in Rome

Climate activists from the Ultima Generazione movement (Last Generation, in literal translation) held a topless protest, this Thursday (4), blocking a busy street in Rome.

The demonstration was against the Italian government’s climate policy after torrential rains killed two people in the country.

The stunt marked a shift in tactics for the group after Rome’s right-wing executive branch introduced hefty fines against protesters who attacked monuments and historic sites.

The group has already thrown ink at Milan’s La Scala opera house and the headquarters of state lender CDP, and has also thrown soup at a Van Gogh painting in Pomegranate and flour in an Andy Warhol-decorated car in Milan.

Ultima Generazione is part of the A22 network of climate civil disobedience groups active in several countries, such as Just Stop Oil in the UK, Stop Old Growth in Canada, Derniere Renovation in France and Declare Emergency in the US.

In March, “Ultima Generazione” climate activists splashed orange paint on the walls of Florence’s iconic Palazzo Vecchio to protest the lack of action to combat global warming.

This Thursday, Ultima Generazione released images showing a small group of activists kneeling in a street in Rome and removing their blouses or – in one case – stripping completely.

The police intervened within minutes to get them out of there.

“Breathed and bare-chested in the streets to denounce the obscenity of the government, which continues to watch impassively as its citizens die from extreme weather events and fuels the cause by unscrupulously subsidizing the fossil industry,” the movement said in a statement.

After months of drought that raised concerns about low levels on the Po, Italy’s longest river, heavy rains hit the northern region of Emilia-Romagna earlier this week, causing extensive damage. Activists blame extreme weather for climate change due to fossil fuels.