Popular Opinion on Young Climate Nonviolent Action: The Portuguese Social Media Reactions to Sit-In Protests in Lisbon

In recent years, youth climate resistance has progressively gained more attention as young climate activists engage in more direct actions, such as strikes and blockades, because they feel it is the only alternative to achieve de facto political change. In Portugal, Climáximo is the youth climate movement that more frequently engages in nonviolent action such as student strikes, painting of targeted premises, and sit-in protests. Despite advances in research involving the Portuguese case concerning media coverage of such actions, there is still a lack of studies on the opinions of observers and their social media reactions to news of young climate nonviolent protests. In effect, the present study aims to gather data on popular opinion on social media to make sense of how Portuguese society reacts and interprets young climate action. Therefore, following a vernacular security approach, it is developed a social media analysis centered on the comments to newspaper social media publications regarding the sit-in protest on December 14, 2023, at Avenida Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco. The study results uncover a variety of narratives involving various themes such as the violence/nonviolence relationship, age, and the current climate situation. These narratives make sense of how observers interpret the justification and necessity of young climate nonviolent protests. Consequently, these results allow for a discussion on how the Portuguese case can contribute to the wider debate on popular opinion and (non)support of resistance practices, namely reactions to young climate nonviolent activism.