Topless protester briefly disrupts VW annual meeting
Topless protester briefly disrupts VW annual meeting
Climate activists are taken out of the venue of the annual shareholders’ meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP)
Climate activists hold a protest banner outside the annual shareholders’ meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Slogan reads: ‘Shareholders’ for more Climate Crises, Labour Camps, Emissions Scandals’. (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP)
Climate activists are taken out of the venue of the annual shareholders’ meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP)
Climate activists are taken out of the venue of the annual shareholders’ meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP)
Climate activists hold a protest banner outside the annual shareholders’ meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Slogan reads: ‘Shareholders’ for more Climate Crises, Labour Camps, Emissions Scandals’. (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP)
Climate activists hold a protest banner outside the annual shareholders’ meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Slogan reads: ‘Shareholders’ for more Climate Crises, Labour Camps, Emissions Scandals’. (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP)
Volkswagen’s annual shareholder meeting was briefly disrupted Wednesday by protests over the company’s factory in China’s Xinjiang province, with a shouting, topless activist interrupting the speech by CEO Oliver Blume before she was hustled away by security personnel.
Additionally a cake-like object was thrown during a speech by board chairman Hans-Dieter Poetsch, apparently in the direction of board member Wolfgang Porsche, who represents his family’s shareholding in the company, the dpa agency reported.
Photos showed a white, gooey substance resembling pastry stuck to the front of the podium behind which Porsche was sitting.
Volkswagen has said that it has found no evidence of human rights violations at its plant in China’s western Xinjiang region. The Chinese government has been accused of human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur population in the region, including forced labor in detention camps. The U.S. State Department has described China’s actions in the region as genocide.
Police also stopped an attempt by climate protesters to glue themselves to the ground on the square outside the meeting.
The shareholder meeting in Berlin resumed after a brief intermission.