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Climate activists daubed with paint on the entrance of the famous La Scala in Milan just before a premiere.

According to the responsible Ultima Generazione (last generation), the action in the northern Italian metropolis lasted about half an hour on Wednesday morning. The group said five of its members were involved.

Photos showed the blue and pink smeared pillars at the theater’s entrance. Two activists held up signs reading “No gas and no coal”. Police officers dragged one of them away. Cleaners began removing the paint immediately after the action, as a video showed.

“We have decided to paint La Scala to encourage the politicians watching the performance that evening to stick their heads out of the sand and intervene to save the population,” it said in a statement.

The new season was to be opened in the opera on Wednesday evening with the work “Boris Godunov” by the Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. According to media reports, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Head of State Sergio Mattarella were expected there, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The Ultima Generazione repeatedly protested climate policies with color attacks in Italian cultural institutions. In the past, the activists mainly defaced works of art, but they also blocked parts of important roads with sit-ins. (cpf/sda/dpa)