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The "last generation" climate activists are glued to the asphalt
Photo: Paul Zinken / picture alliance / dpa
Climate activists from the »Last Generation« group are going on the offensive in terms of communication: they want to enter into dialogue with the federal government.
On Thursday next week, a team representing the group will be available in Berlin for talks with the federal government – especially with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (FDP), Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) and, in particular, Federal Minister of Transport Volker Wissing (FDP).
The activists are calling for negotiations on a speed limit of one hundred kilometers per hour and the return to a nine-euro ticket for local transport.
This could end the protests.
Until a solution is found, the activists want to continue their actions.
It is doubtful that chancellor and minister will hold talks under these conditions.
So far there has been no response from the government to the request.
The activists are also demanding a correction, according to which a climate protest in Berlin had no impact on the care of an accident victim, who has since died.
They referred to statements made by several politicians in the traffic light coalition, who had established a corresponding connection, as well as a report in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" about a note from the Berlin fire brigade, according to which the climate blockade had no influence on the woman's emergency care.
Government criticizes protests as ineffective
The federal government had previously criticized extreme forms of climate protest as "unproductive".
The limit of legitimate protest is reached when people's lives are put at risk, said deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner.
In principle, Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports every democratic commitment.
"The form of protest that we are seeing now, especially this week, is not effective or constructive," said Büchner.
"It must not be that human lives are endangered, and that's why we don't accept this form of protest either." Commitment to climate protection "must not go outside the framework of our laws".
Büchner said he "expressly made no connection" between the climate protests and the cyclist's accident.
That is the subject of an investigation.
It is also fundamentally a central concern of the federal government to implement an ambitious climate policy.
The concern of the demonstrators to protect the climate is not only understandable, but also worthy of support.
"But what is to be condemned in the strongest possible terms, and the chancellor has made this clear, are the means chosen."
Last generation actions include sticking themselves to streets.
On Wednesday, the group also smeared the headquarters of the traffic light parties in Berlin with paint.
mfh/AFP