Anuna De Wever Van Der Heyden (born 16 June 2001) is a Belgian

climate activist The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called "climate action") addressing the causes and Effects of climate change, impacts of climate change. environmental movement, ...

and was one of the leading figures in the

School strike for climate School Strike for Climate ( sv, Skolstrejk för klimatet), also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, is an international movement of school students who skip Friday ...

movement in Belgium.

Early life and activism

De Wever was born in

Mortsel Mortsel () is a city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality close to the city of Antwerp located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the city of Mortsel proper. In 2021, Mortsel ha ...

, Belgium. With Kyra Gantois and

Adélaïde Charlier Adélaïde Charlier (born ) is a climate activist, and one of the Belgian activists in the School strike for climate School Strike for Climate ( sv, Skolstrejk för klimatet), also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth f ...

, De Wever became one of the leading figures in the

movement in Belgium. As a result, from February to May 2019 they had a weekly column in the magazine ''

HUMO ''HUMO'' is a popular Dutch-language Belgian weekly radio and television supermarket tabloid. History and profile ''Humoradio'' (meaning a portmanteau of 'humor' and 'radio' in English) was first published in 1936 as a Dutch-language counterpa ...

.'' In aftermath of the school strikes in Belgium centre-right

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

minister for the environment

Joke Schauvliege Joke Schauvliege (born in Ghent on 16 March 1970) is a Belgian politician from Flanders. Career She has been schepen (municipal officer) of Planning, Youth, Tourism and Environmental Development in the municipality of Evergem since 2 January ...

was obliged to resign after falsely claiming that the

Belgian State Security Service The State Security Service (VSSE) (known in Dutch as ''Staatsveiligheid''; French: ''Sûreté de l'État'') is a Belgian intelligence and security agency. Established in 1830, it is the oldest intelligence service except for the Vatican's. The S ...

had information indicating that the climate strike was a political front organisation. Personal differences led to a fissure within the Belgian Youth for Climate movement, with the departure of co-founder Kyra Gantois in August 2019. De Wever made an appearance at the 2019 Pukkelpop music festival attempting to engage the audience to call attention to the climate issues. This call angered some festival goers who harassed their group, hurled bottles of urine at them, and followed them back to their campsite, uttered death threats and destroyed their tent, forcing security to intervene. Because the attackers had been carrying a variant of the

Flag of Flanders The flag of Flanders, called the ''Vlaamse Leeuw'' ("Flemish Lion") or ''leeuwenvlag'' ("Lion flag"), is the flag of the Flemish Community and Flemish Region in Belgium. The flag was officially adopted by the Cultural Council for the Dutch Cultura ...

favoured by far-right elements of the

Flemish Movement The Flemish Movement ( nl, Vlaamse Beweging) is an umbrella term which encompasses various political groups in the Belgium, Belgian region of Flanders and, less commonly, in French Flanders. Ideologically, it encompasses groups which have sought ...

, the organizers banned such flags from the event, confiscating 20. In October 2019, De Wever was among the youngest climate activists to set sail on the '' Regina Maris'' for a low-carbon trans-Atlantic journey to the

2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP25, was the 25th United Nations Climate Change conference. It was held in Madrid, Spain, from 2 to 13 December 2019 under the presidency of the Chilean government. The confere ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. In February 2020, after returning from South America, they took an internship with the Greens–European Free Alliance in the European Parliament, without becoming a member of the party. De Wever identifies as gender non-binary and uses she/he/they pronouns. She received criticism for calling Gert Verhulst an "old white straight male", which prompted reply from the Belgian Secretary of State, Asylum and Immigration Sammy Mahdi who said: "Can we stop reducing a person's opinion to age, skin color, sexual orientation and gender?".

Awards

* In May 2019, De Wever and Kyra Gantois jointly received the

Ark Prize of the Free Word The Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord (Ark Prize of the Free Word) is a symbolic award created in 1951 by Herman Teirlinck and the editorial team of the ''Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift'' (New Flemish magazine) to counteract ideologically driven restrictions ...

. * In September 2019, De Wever and Adélaïde Charlier received Amnesty International Belgium's Ambassador of Conscience Award on behalf of Youth for Climate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Wever, Anuna Living people 2001 births Belgian environmentalists People from Mortsel Climate activists Non-binary activists Youth climate activists 21st-century Belgian LGBT people