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Carla Hinrichs from the "Last Generation" at Anne Will with photos of climate activists in preventive custody
Photo: Wolfgang Borrs / NDR
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann and climate activist Carla Hinrichs have accused each other of breaking the law.
"You have to abide by the law," said the FDP politician on Sunday in the ARD program "Anne Will" on the question of whether road blockades and attacks on works of art help in the fight for the climate.
The climate activist Carla Hinrichs from the group "Last Generation" replied with a view to a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court: "Our government is currently breaking our Basic Law." The court had ruled in 2021 that the federal government at the time had to improve its climate protection law in order to protect the freedom rights of younger generations protection.
Constitutional complaints from several climate protectors were partly successful.
Buschmann and the Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) argued that even good goals should not be pursued by breaking the law.
In a democracy, you don't try to blackmail the government by continuing to commit crimes, Buschmann said.
Herrmann said: "Coercion is punishable, property damage is punishable." This could not be part of a democratic decision-making process.
Hinrichs replied that she was grateful for her right to demonstrate.
But: »The time window in which we can act is closing.
(...) We still have two to three years to decide whether we will survive on this planet.« She argued: »We are racing into a catastrophe, so it is our moral duty to exhaust all our means.« She is ready, to go to prison if necessary for their goals, Hinrichs affirmed.
Bundestag Vice-President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) noted that the discussion was drawing energy away from the actual problem - for example that the world climate summit had only brought a »non-result«.
However, she also partially agreed with the climate activist: “Failure to comply with the 1.5 degree path – that is unconstitutional.”
Buschmann defended that the FDP in the federal government is against a speed limit in road traffic.
Basically, there is agreement on the goals with climate activists.
"We only do it with technology and innovation." Hermann, on the other hand, defended the comparatively low expansion of wind power in Bavaria.
"We are aware that we have to move much faster there," he said.
“It has something to do with the fact that thousands of citizens in Bavaria demonstrated against wind turbines.” Now the state government is pushing ahead with the expansion of renewable energies “with great emphasis”.
as/dpa
