An activist from the group "Last Generation", who himself has his hand glued to the street, blocks an intersection. © Swen Pförtner/dpa/Archivbild
The police and the public prosecutor's office are taking action against the Last Generation. Apartments and business premises in seven federal states were searched, and a homepage and accounts were also confiscated. Sharp criticism comes from climate activists.
Munich/Berlin - With a large-scale raid, the police and the public prosecutor's office took action on Wednesday against the climate protection group Last Generation. Around 170 officers searched from the early morning 15 apartments and business premises in seven federal states, such as the Attorney General's Office in Munich and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office announced. The accusation is of forming or supporting a criminal organization.
Seven defendants, who are between 22 and 38 years old, are being investigated. Initially, there were no arrests. According to investigators, two of the suspects are suspected of attempting to sabotage the Trieste-Ingolstadt oil pipeline in April 2022.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the background to the investigations and searches are numerous criminal complaints. The group regularly draws attention to the fatal consequences of global warming with sit-ins and actions in museums. The members often glue themselves to streets or even works of art.
Climate protection activists reacted with harsh criticism. The Ende Gelände group criticized on Twitter that there are raids on those "who warn of the climate crisis and not on those who are responsible for it". The Last Generation itself asked on Twitter when lobby structures would be searched and "government fossil funds" confiscated.
According to the police and the Prosecutor General's Office, the central accusation in connection with the searches is that the accused are said to have organized a fundraising campaign to finance further crimes for the Last Generation and thus collected at least 1.4 million euros. According to previous findings, this money had been used "predominantly for the commission of further crimes". Where the money comes from is the subject of the investigation. How much of it was confiscated, the police did not say at first. The aim of the searches was also "to find evidence on the membership structure," it said.
Searches were carried out in seven federal states, specifically in Hesse in the district of Fulda, in Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt (Magdeburg), Saxony (Dresden), Bavaria (Augsburg and Munich), Berlin and in the district of Segeberg in Schleswig-Holstein. According to initial information, the operations were peaceful. On the instructions of the public prosecutor's office, the group's homepage was also confiscated and shut down.
In recent weeks, the environment for the activists had become extremely harsh. Annoyed motorists often beat and kicked the protesters and dragged them off the road, and the Potsdam Regional Court confirmed for the first time the initial suspicion that the group could be a criminal organization. This week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also extremely critical, calling the group's sticking actions "completely crazy".
The activists initially called for a "food-saving law" against food waste. The current demands are a speed limit of 100 km/h on motorways and a permanent 9-euro ticket for public transport.
The investigations are based at the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism. However, a spokesman for the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office emphasized that this does not mean that the Last Generation is classified as extremist or terrorist. "According to the current state of investigation, we assume that it is a criminal organization - mind you, not a terrorist one," the spokesman said. This is to be examined by the courts.
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The German police union welcomed the searches. "The judiciary is taking action, that is the right signal of a defensive constitutional state," said union leader Rainer Wendt in Berlin.
The deputy chairman of the Left Party, Lorenz Gösta Beutin, called the raids completely exaggerated. The people, who considered themselves part of the so-called Last Generation, relied on peaceful civil disobedience to draw attention to the climate catastrophe and the failure of the federal government. Dpa