This Tuesday, November 19, the Paris town hall awarded honorary citizenship, a high distinction, to environmental activist Paul Watson, imprisoned in Greenland.
A symbolic mark of support. At the opening of the Paris Council this Tuesday, November 19, the City voted to grant honorary citizenship to Paul Watson, environmental activist and founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd.
Currently incarcerated in Nuuk, Greenland, and threatened with extradition to Japan, the defender of whales facing the Japanese government – which authorizes the hunting of giant mammals despite an international ban – is the subject of much support around the world.
“Paul Watson has been detained for more than 120 days, almost 74 years old. He is calling us for help,” Anne Hidalgo said to members of the municipal council, adding that she had personally written to President Emmanuel Macron to request the release of the environmental activist. The latter will remain behind bars at least until December 5, Danish justice recently ruled.
UNanimity of opinions on the fight
The different political compositions of the municipal council unanimously paid tribute to man and the fight he leads for the preservation of biodiversity and the environment.
“This unfounded incarceration has lasted long enough. In 2024 can we criminalize those who fight for the environment? We support his request for release,” said Fatoumata Koné, president of the “Les Ecologistes” group.
Also in the center and on the right Paul Watson was praised for his civic commitment and likened to a “shepherd of the sea”. Pierre-Yves Bournazel, co-president of the centrist group “Union Capitale” expressed his solidarity and hoped “that political asylum and French nationality (which he requested two weeks ago in a letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron ) be granted to him.
Divergences on the mode of action
Nevertheless, despite recognition of the fight waged, Paul Watson's methods of action were called into question by certain Paris advisors. For the record, the arrest of the founder of Sea Shepherd was permitted after an Interpol red notice issued in 2012. The Japanese state accuses him of injuring a Japanese sailor in 2012, as part of an action by Sea Shepherd against the whalers.
“I do not share all of his activist commitments,” explained Laurent Sorel (non-member, close to France Insoumise), recalling that he had notably known how to “play on his pirate image”. Same story, this time on the right since Farida Kerboua (Les Républicains, Les Centristes) noted that Paul Watson “was not at his first attempt at the subject of violent actions”, referring to a matter of scuffles with seal hunters for which he was arrested in Canada in 1979.
Finally, Franck Margain (Changer Paris) asked that this highly symbolic act not be in any way a means of hindering “international cooperation”, the City “not being there to rule on a legal situation, which moreover, on an international level,” he explained.
