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"Last generation": Police stop jackhammer protest in Berlin

2023-01-04T15:47:27.864Z


Blocking roads, smearing works of art: With such actions, the »last generation« wants to achieve more climate protection. Now the police have stopped a protest directed against Transport Minister Wissing.


Enlarge image

A police officer drags away a jackhammer that the »last generation« wanted to use to blow up a street in Berlin

Photo: Christian Mang / REUTERS

For the activists of the “Last Generation” group, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is one of the most important actors in the fight against the climate crisis – but is hardly doing enough.

With a new form of protest, they now wanted to bring traffic to a standstill in front of his ministry, but failed because the Berlin police quickly intervened.

In the early morning, the group positioned themselves with jackhammers in front of the Federal Ministry of Transport in Berlin and tried to damage Invalidenstrasse.

According to a police spokesman, the action could be stopped, so the road surface was not damaged.

According to the spokesman, three people were involved in the protest.

When the police officers arrived, the activists were in the process of connecting the jackhammers to power sources.

Videos of the "Last Generation" show the endeavor on Twitter.

»The everyday grind takes us straight to climate hell via freshly paved and solid roads.

We can't allow that," the activist group wrote.

"If we want to survive, we finally have to tackle the climate catastrophe site together!" The group also announced that it would continue to "interrupt everyday life" in order to carry the resistance into all areas of society.

Addressing Wissing and the FDP, the “Last Generation” warned that Germany would soon “irrevocably lose its freedoms as a result of the climate crisis, if rows of cities become uninhabitable, our economy collapses and we no longer have enough food”.

2200 criminal charges and 600 fine notices

Since the beginning of 2022, the "last generation" has been blocking motorway exits and intersections in Berlin and other major cities to fight for more climate protection.

There were also campaigns in museums, stadiums, ministries, at airports and on oil pipelines.

Among other things, the climate protectors smeared the protective glasses of famous works of art with mashed potatoes or tomato soup.

The message: human life must be protected more urgently than art.

The name derives from the belief that there is only one generation left that can do something about climate change.

In Berlin alone, according to the police, activists blocked streets around 276 times in 2022.

In addition, there were 42 other actions, some of which were criminal, by mid-December.

In total, there have already been 2,200 criminal charges and 600 fines in the capital.

The forms of protest are hardly popular with the population.

A large majority of Germans reject the traffic blockades and pollution.

mrc/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-01-04

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