Climate activists of the last generation once again stuck themselves to Berlin streets on Monday and blocked traffic. The police reported 21 blockades, the activists said there were 30. Around 500 police officers were deployed to prevent blockades, which they said they succeeded in seven cases, or to remove activists from the streets. There were delays due to “particularly stubborn adhesive mixtures”.
By late morning almost all blockades had ended. These were spread across the entire city. According to police reports, people were injured in two cases: a police officer was slightly injured in the hand during an arrest, and a driver attacked activists with gas and kicks to get them off the road. Here the police are investigating dangerous bodily harm. The road was also damaged in some places.
The activists remained convinced of the effectiveness of their protest. “We are determined to continue this peaceful resistance for as long as necessary,” they wrote on the X (formerly Twitter) platform. As a current demand, they formulated “away from oil, gas and coal by 2030”. The police expressed understanding for citizens who were “annoyed” by the protests, but called on them not to intervene themselves but to call the police instead.
Brandenburg Gate daubed
The domestic policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Alexander Throm, criticized the actions of the activists. “Interventions in air traffic, road blockades, disruption of public services and ultimately the suspicion of forming a criminal organization are not trivial offenses,” said the CDU politician to the same newspaper. Climate protection is right, but it does not justify crimes.
The Last Generation wants to raise awareness for its goals with a new wave of protest actions in Berlin. To kick things off, activists sprayed the Brandenburg Gate with yellow and orange paint on Sunday. They used fire extinguishers to do this.
Politicians from the Green Party also commented critically on the campaign: “Wow people, your learning curve is also hard at zero. Who is supposed to be convinced by something like that?” wrote Green MP Konstantin von Notz on Platform X. The Berlin landmark should be free of paint by the middle of the week. For this purpose, the contracted company uses, among other things, lifting platforms; However, they were still stuck in traffic on Monday because of the activists’ road blockades.
Last Sunday, police officers led members of the Last Generation arrested at the Brandenburg Gate to a prisoner transporter. : Image: Paul Zinken/dpa
The protests by climate activists have now led to 2,860 proceedings by the Berlin public prosecutor’s office (as of September 15th). An authority spokesman told the German Press Agency. 2,458 cases involve actions of the last generation. The remaining 402 cases were directed against members of the Extinction Rebellion organization.
Published/Updated: Recommendations: 80 Markus Wehner and Lukas Fuhr Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 16 Mina Marschall Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6
According to the public prosecutor’s office, there are now 74 legally binding judgments against members of the Last Generation. The Tiergarten District Court has made a total of 143 judgments so far, and in two cases the accused were acquitted. A prison sentence was imposed in two cases.
2023-09-18 21:48:25
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