Greta Thunberg apologizes for ‘against the wall’ remark

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg apologized for saying that politicians should be put “against the wall” — after some took it as a call for violence.

کد خبر: ۹۴۴۳۳۸

تاریخ: ۲۴ آذر ۱۳۹۸ - ۱۸:۳۵

The 16-year-old Swedish native made the comment while speaking in English during a speech to youth activists in Turin, Italy, on Friday.

“We have to make sure that they cannot do that,” Thunberg told the cheering crowd. “We will make sure they, that we put them against the wall, and that they will have to do their job and to protect our futures.”

Thunberg’s remarks caused outrage on social media where some on the right interpreted her comment as inciting violence.

“So that sounds like a threat of violence,” Alt News Media editor David Vance wrote on Twitter. “’Against a wall’ and then what, Greta? Shoot the ones you don’t like?”

Thunberg later explained that she was making a literal translation from a Swedish expression, which describes a situation putting someone on the spot with hard questions.

“That’s what happens when you improvise speeches in a second language. But of course I apologize if anyone misunderstood this,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

She continued saying, “I can not enough express the fact that I – as well as the entire school strike movement- are against any possible form of violence. It goes without saying but I say it anyway.”