The interruption of their protests only lasted this week: The climate protection group “Last Generation” has announced further and increased disruptive actions, especially in Berlin and Munich. From Monday, the aim is again to target the “arteries of society”, such as transport connections, and “there will continue to be interruptions everywhere,” said one of the group’s co-founders, Henning Jeschke, at a press conference on Friday. They want to disrupt the everyday life of society, and there will also be symbolic actions again.
Since the beginning of the year, the group has repeatedly blocked streets with demonstrators who have been glued to it and have also caused a stir with other actions. Most recently, activists stuck to Berlin Airport. In Berlin and Munich, many blockers have now been fined. In Bavaria, some were jailed as a preventive measure for announcing further disruption. Among other things, the group is calling for a speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour on motorways and a nine-euro train ticket for the whole of Germany. Many politicians expressed a lack of understanding for the form of the protest.
According to the Bavarian department head Joachim Herrmann, the interior ministers of the federal states want to get a quick and comprehensive overview of the disruptions. The Interior Ministers’ Conference (IMK) agreed that “serious crimes” committed by the group had to be fought, said the CSU politician on ZDF. The results of the IMK, which has been meeting since Wednesday, should be presented in Munich on Friday afternoon.
The group’s spokeswoman, Carla Hinrichs, said: “The resistance will grow stronger. And it doesn’t stop at Christmas or in the New Year.” The “fourth wave of our protest” has been running since October. Numerous people across Germany are currently joining them, many of whom are being trained for actions. “We will not let prison sentences stop us from fighting for a good future.”
The group announced that larger campaigns were planned for Monday morning in Berlin and Munich. A young man from Munich, who claims to have been in prison for almost a month, announced a major blockade: on Monday at 8 a.m. on the “street on Karlsplatz heading north, right by the Stachus Ost taxi rank”. The group assured that no specific tactic was hidden behind this specific announcement. We call on all people to participate.
A spokesman for the Munich police headquarters said: “Of course we will prepare accordingly. We will prevent disruptive actions or at least try to prevent them. But you have to evaluate that on the spot. Of course, it can also be that they appear somewhere else. We would prefer it if you register a meeting and announce there what you really want. But there are probably different opinions about that.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently said about the protests: “I cannot understand these actions, they are not only incomprehensible, but also extremely dangerous, as you could see with the activities at BER, for example.”
In Berlin, the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) called on the group to help fight the climate crisis with manual energy. “Tackling instead of sticking. That would be my motto,” she said at a conference of the Berlin and Brandenburg Chambers of Industry and Commerce.
