Eco-warrior Greta Thunberg swaps hats and feeds chips to mystery man in Italy

Eco-warrior Greta Thunberg was seen cozying up to a mystery man as he put his arm around her and she fed him chips after the Fridays for Future march in Italy.

Photographs taken after the school climate change strike in Cairoli, Milan, on Friday showed Greta, 18, kindly hand-feeding chips to a mystery man as they took a break from the march. 

The mystery man, who was wearing a white T-shirt and a blue and white checkered bucket hat, pulled down his white face mask to his chin while Greta fed him.

Greta, who donned a black T-shirt and a green frog bucket hat, appeared in excellent spirits as she spent time with her seemingly close friend at the Fridays for Future march.

The mystery man was also seen warmly putting his arm around Greta’s shoulders and the eco-warrior appeared to be leaning into him as they stood in the crowds.

Other photographs showed Greta wearing the mystery man’s blue checkered bucket hat as she marched in the crowds and held up a cardboard ‘Fridays for Future’ sign, referring to the youth-led and organised global climate strike movement.

Earlier in the day, Greta, who kept herself protected with a white face mask amid the Covid crisis, joined crowds of young activists and gave an impassioned speech at the Fridays for Future strike.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Greta said that she is ‘best friends’ with some of her fellow activists within the climate movement.

She explained: ‘We have daily contact. We don’t just campaign together, we are also friends. My best friends are within the climate movement.’

She added: ‘Since we are spread all over the world it’s hard to do that, but we have Zoom calls and movie nights online and lots of chats where we just spam each other.’ 

It comes after Greta mocked Boris Johnson today as she opened a youth climate summit in Italy – accusing the Prime Minister and other world leaders of making ’empty promises’ over global warming.

The teenage campaigner poked fun at a speech by Mr Johnson in April in which he referred to ‘bunny hugging’, and also criticised eco-friendly buzzwords used by politicians in recent weeks such as ‘no Planet B’, ‘green economy’, ‘Net Zero’ and ‘climate neutral’.

Miss Thunberg, 18, told delegates: ‘There is no Planet B, there is no planet blah – blah, blah, blah; blah, blah, blah. This is not about some expensive politically- correct green act, bunny hugging, or blah blah blah. 

‘Build back better, blah blah blah; green economy, blah blah blah; Net Zero by 25… 2050, blah blah blah. Net Zero by 2050, blah blah blah. Net Zero, blah blah blah. Climate neutral, blah blah blah.’ 

The activist, who rose to fame thanks to her ‘school strike for climate’ protests in her native Sweden, added: ‘This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words, words that sound great but so far has led to no action.

‘Our hopes and dreams drowned in their empty words and promises. Of course we need constructive dialogue, but they have now had 30 years of blah, blah blah. And where has that led us?

Speaking at the Youth4Climate pre-COP26 conference in Milan, she attacked governments for ‘shamelessly congratulating themselves’ while making insufficient pledges to cut emissions, and claimed politicians ‘invite cherry-picked young people to meetings like this to pretend that they are listening to us, but they are not’.

But Conservative MP Steve Baker was unimpressed by her comments, telling MailOnline: ‘I would encourage Greta Thunberg to stand for election in Wycombe and explain to the public in Wycombe, many of whom are hard pressed working people, what it would actually mean to implement her policies.

‘It is increasingly clear that the cost of Net Zero includes dramatically unaffordable changes to all our lives. It is thanks to environmental extremism that we are not using the shale resources in our own country and as a result our gas prices are soaring.’

Meanwhile, Tory MP, Craig Mackinlay, told MailOnline that he was not prepared to ‘cast life back to the stone-age to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint, claiming Greta’s family would not ‘struggle to make ends meet’ under her demands.

He continued: ‘I always admire activism and Ms Thunberg never fails to impress on that score. However, if the new world order were to go ahead under her manifesto I doubt it would be her or her family struggling to make ends meet.

‘The real world of life for many in my South Thanet constituency is somewhat different where fuel poverty is real.

‘Additional costs added to the basic needs of heating and travel will make life colder and poorer for many.

‘There are many sensible ways of reducing the UK’s carbon footprint but I’m not prepared to cast life back to the stone-age to achieve it.’

Mr Johnson made the ‘bunny hugger’ remark during a virtual climate summit in April this year, when he also used the phrase ‘build back better’.

He said at the time: ‘What I’m driving at is this is about growth and jobs… ‘We can build back better from this pandemic by building back greener.’

It is not the first time that Miss Thunberg has picked up on the remark, changing her Twitter status to ‘bunny hugger’ just a day later in response.

Her remarks were made at the summit in Milan – a three-day event attended by 400 young representatives from 190 nations which will be used to develop climate policies.