DThe climate group “Last Generation” wants to try to paralyze Berlin indefinitely with new protest actions. First of all, disturbances in the government district are planned from Wednesday, the group said on Tuesday in Berlin. From Monday it was planned to “peacefully bring the city to a standstill”. 800 activists signed up for it. The protest should only end if the federal government responds to the demands of the group.
This includes a social council with random members developing measures to ensure that Germany does not use fossil fuels such as oil, coal or gas from 2030 onwards. Scientists and politicians are skeptical that this can be done so quickly. For example, it would be necessary to end cars with internal combustion engines and all gas and oil heating systems as well as gas and coal-fired power plants within seven years.
“We will bring the city to a peaceful halt,” spokeswoman Carla Hinrichs said at a press conference. The group keeps secret what is planned where and how, especially since the police are taking action against the illegal actions. Hinrichs confirmed that the protest was planned indefinitely. The government can stop the blockades if it establishes the social council or presents a plan to reach the 1.5 degree target. What is meant is global warming of no more than 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times. According to scientists, with the currently foreseeable climate protection measures, the earth is heading for a much stronger warming of up to 2.8 degrees – with consequences such as more storms, floods, droughts, crop failures and famines.
Prison sentence for activists in Heilbronn
Three activists from the “Last Generation” now face several months in prison for blocking a street just hours after being convicted. The district court of Heilbronn on Monday sentenced two men and a woman to prison terms of five, four and three months without probation for coercion. According to the public prosecutor and activists, the sentence is the harshest that has been imposed on members of the “last generation” in Germany. Another defendant was sentenced to three months probation. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The court saw it as proven that the three men and one woman blocked federal highway 27 in Heilbronn in early March in protest. Three of the four accused had already been sentenced to fines and short prison terms for another road blockade on the morning of the action now indicted. Only a few hours after the verdict, they were back on the street. According to police officers, two of the accused also tried to stick themselves to the asphalt. When that didn’t work, the two stuck their hands together.
The “last generation” has been blocking traffic in German cities since the beginning of 2022. For CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja, the climate activists of the last generation are “extremists”. “We can’t let a few alleged activists keep us from working, but in reality they are extremists,” Czaja said Tuesday on Deutschlandfunk about the group and its road blockades.
Czaja also referred to the protesters as “violent offenders” and “criminals”. The police must take “tough” action and detain the demonstrators for as long as legally possible, and sentences should also be passed quickly, he demanded. The camp of activists in Berlin’s Invalidenpark – according to Czaja a “chaotic camp where the group is already assembling” – must be cleared.
In the UK, too, climate activists from Extinction Rebellion and other environmental organizations have announced that they will embark on “new and imaginative campaigning avenues” if the government in London does not give in to talks. That’s what he reported Channel Sky News on Tuesday. Accordingly, the climate activists issued two ultimatums in a press conference: They called on the ministers to stop all licenses, financing and permits for new projects using fossil fuels and to convene “emergency citizens’ meetings” to deal with the climate crisis. A four-day protest has been announced from Friday to Monday; the government has until April 24 to respond to the activists’ demands. If in doubt, Great Britain is threatened with an even stronger protest, the organizers warn.
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