The German Association of Towns and Municipalities has sharply criticized the agreements made by individual municipalities with the “Last Generation” climate group. It is “not usual for criminals to be met with political promises,” said General Manager Gerd Landsberg of the German Press Agency (dpa).
The cities of Hanover, Tübingen and Marburg had publicly supported the demands of the “last generation” and in return managed to get the group to end their blockades with activists stuck in place. Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg, on the other hand, had rejected such agreements. For this Tuesday, the “Last Generation” is therefore threatening massive disruptions in Hamburg.
Landsberg accused the climate group: “Regularly, the procedure involves criminal offenses such as coercion, dangerous intervention in road traffic and property damage.” The media followed this partly benevolently. But apart from attention, nothing is done for climate protection. “Against this background, we are extremely critical of agreements between cities and the last generation,” he added.
The German Association of Cities was more reserved. “Each city decides for itself whether the city politicians will take up the conversation on site,” explained Managing Director Helmut Dedy.
“Regardless of this, climate protection has a high priority in all cities.” The cities worked together with social groups and strived for climate neutrality. But they need support from the federal and state governments.
The central demand of the “last generation” is the establishment of a society council with random instead of elected members. This should draw up binding plans to ensure that Germany will not blow any additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from 2030 onwards. So far, Germany has been aiming for climate neutrality by 2045.
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