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The Last Generation and the State: Is there a Threat of Escalation?

2023-05-31T05:33:18.746Z

Highlights: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's term for the Last Generation has been translated into many languages. It is safe to say that the searches ordered by the Bavarian Prosecutor General's Office have enormously increased the international profile of the group. For many, climate activists may be pursuing the right goals - but with the completely wrong means. The activists, like the suffragettes once did, are spectacularly violating rules in order to highlight the urgency of their cause. They are convinced that in 50 years – when climate change unfolds its full devastating effect – it will not be they who will be the "climate terrorists"



The imprint of two hands at a road blockade of the Last Generation on the Mühlendamm in Berlin. © Paul Zinken/dpa

Mashed potatoes in a Monet painting, paint against the SPD headquarters and many glued hands on the street – the last generation irritates and provokes. Now the state has struck back.

Berlin – "Completely crazy" means "completely idiotic" in English, "totalement idiot" in French, "tutto insensato" in Italian, "completamente locas" in Spanish and "helemaal getikt" in Dutch. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's term for the Last Generation has been translated into many languages by the world's major newspapers in recent days. This was accompanied by extensive coverage of the raids against the German climate activists. It is safe to say that the searches ordered by the Bavarian Prosecutor General's Office have enormously increased the international profile of the group.

Mashed potatoes in a Monet painting, paint against the SPD headquarters and many glued hands on the street – the last generation has been irritating and provoking for months. However, readers of foreign newspaper reports now also know that the backlash of the judicial authorities came with surprising force: the images of masked investigators storming homes and offices could have come from a Reichsbürger or Mafia raid. Is this the beginning of a spiral of escalation?

Crossing red lines

It is the strategy of the last generation to cross red lines in order to generate attention. This approach has a long tradition in the history of civil disobedience. For example, the suffragettes, who fought for women's suffrage a good 100 years ago, attacked pictures. Unlike today's climate activists, however, they did not select works that were protected by bulletproof glass, but instead inflicted deep cuts with a cleaver on the famous painting "Venus in front of the Mirror" by Diego Velazquez in the National Gallery in London.

The museum attacks of the last generation are criticized, among other things, because there is no connection to climate change. However, the activists, like the suffragettes once did, are spectacularly violating rules in order to highlight the urgency of their cause. They are convinced that in 50 years – when climate change unfolds its full devastating effect – it will not be they who will be the "climate terrorists", but all those who did not act when it was still possible. This is also where the name comes from, which goes back to a quote from former US President Barack Obama: It is the last generation that can still stop climate change.

Activists take personal risks

The urgency of the issue is also underlined by the fact that those involved take personal risks. In April, for example, a 24-year-old activist of the Last Generation, who had glued herself to the frame of a Lucas Cranach painting in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, was sentenced to four months in prison without parole.

It is a fact that the Last Generation consciously commits crimes. It can also be argued that it exercises violence in a certain way by coercing people through its blockades and taking them hostage, as it were: think of families who are stuck for six hours on the Berlin city motorway on their way to vacation with screaming children. Or to entrepreneurs who are facing real existential hardships due to the ever-changing blockades. The images of freaking out motorists make it clear: For many, climate activists may be pursuing the right goals - but with the completely wrong means.

A criminal organization?

However, the thesis that this is sufficient to label the Last Generation as a criminal organization is highly controversial. One of the few for whom this is already "clearly" certain is CSU state group leader Alexander Dobrindt. He even fears "that a climate RAF will emerge". The left-wing extremist Red Army Faction (RAF) murdered over 70 people from the 90s to the 30s.

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For the legal scholar Matthias Jahn, there is a connection between Dobrindt's choice of words and last week's raids: "The spiral of escalation is turning, the word of the 'climate RAF' has been followed by deeds," says the criminal law professor and judge at the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt/Main of the German Press Agency. "This sets in motion a dynamic that threatens to produce martyrs because the state reacts with disproportionate harshness."

Relation to the Bavarian state election campaign

Jahn also suspects a connection to the Bavarian state election campaign: There are no indications that the Munich public prosecutor's office could have affirmed an initial suspicion for improper reasons. "But the factual influence of such investigations on the looming Bavarian election campaign can hardly be misunderstood." The aim is apparently to give citizens the feeling that something is being done about the annoying troublemakers.

Extremism researcher Matthias Quent sees the danger that the crackdown will "have deterrent effects that backfire". Climate activists may not feel supported by the state, but abandoned: "This can lead to individuals becoming radicalized."

Schwarzer sees parallels to the student movement

In this context, the women's rights activist Alice Schwarzer recalls the often overly harsh reaction of the authorities to the protest actions of the student movement. In 1967, for example, Fritz Teufel and other members of the Commune were persecuted in Berlin for a failed "pudding assassination" of U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey. "Exactly this devil, for example, was driven into such a corner that he finally went into hiding," writes the 80-year-old Schwarzer in an "Emma" contribution. "What remained of this protest was ultimately the Red Army Faction (RAF), which self-righteously murdered."

So far, however, there are no signs of such a development in the climate movement. "On the contrary, I find it remarkable how calm they remain, even when they are attacked," emphasizes extremism researcher Quent.

Risk of radicalisation in politics

Scholars such as the Berlin social philosopher Robin Celikates see the real danger of radicalization elsewhere: "Even if protest violates individual laws and may be annoying, criminalizing protest is much more threatening, and therefore the greater danger for the democratic state under the rule of law also lies in this disproportionate radicalization of reactions to the last generation."

The lawyer Jahn appeals to both sides – the climate activists and the judicial authorities – to take the "path back to proportionality". There is certainly an approach to stronger dialogue with the Last Generation: For example, the movement recently cooperated with several museums by reading texts on the climate crisis on International Museum Day. Activist Irma Trommer explained: "The hope is that people will get to know us and see: Hey, this has nothing to do with terrorism." dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-05-31

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