Against motorway expansion: Greenpeace protests on the roof of the SPD headquarters

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Greenpeace activists on the facade of the SPD party headquarters in Berlin

Photo: ODD ANDERSEN / AFP

In the dispute over the accelerated expansion of the motorway, the Greens and the FDP have so far been irreconcilable in the traffic light coalition.

The SPD could bring about the decision.

For this reason, Greenpeace activists set a sign on the roof of the party headquarters on Monday morning.

About ten activists protested on the roof against the highway expansion, as the Berlin police said.

Two of them roped down and put up a banner on the house that said “Railway instead of concrete, dare to progress”.

Ten other Greenpeace activists wanted to demonstrate on the ground, but were stopped, it was said.

The police were on site with a large contingent of around 100 emergency services.

Social justice demanded

"We are here because the SPD is currently tipping the scales when it comes to the construction of new autobahns in Germany," said Lena Donat from Greenpeace of the German Press Agency on site.

Greenpeace is demanding that the SPD show its colors and stand by its values ​​and promises.

"Building freeways is not socially just," said Donat.

This statement relates to the finding that "households with lower incomes are more often affected by the environmental pollution of road traffic than households with higher incomes," according to the Federal Environment Agency's website.

In addition, with significantly fewer cars per household, they are not the main cause of the problems.

A turnaround in traffic is therefore necessary to make mobility fairer and more ecological.

Environmental groups are critical

In a joint paper last week, Greenpeace and BUND described not only the mere use of roads as harmful to the climate.

»The construction, operation and maintenance of the motorways and federal roads also makes a decisive contribution to the worsening of the climate crisis.«

Additional autobahns and federal highways made road traffic faster and more attractive.

Above all, they increased the distances covered.

According to the analysis by the associations, the construction and expansion of motorways and federal roads produce significantly more CO2 emissions than the environmental report on the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 shows.

zob/dpa