As of: February 15, 2024, 4:18 p.m
By: Giorgia Grimaldi
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The climate activists have big plans in the “super election year” of 2024.
With the union they want to achieve “more complex” goals.
“What about Fridays for Future”?
That is the question that climate activists Luisa Neubauer, Pauline Brünger and Ole Horn want to answer together with climate impact researcher Stefan Rahmstorf at a press conference on February 15th in Berlin.
The reason for the question is the strong participation of the climate movement in the protests against right-wing extremism and the announced alliance with the Verdi union.
Luisa Neubauer from FFF: “New strategies will not replace the old mechanisms”
Together with Verdi, the climate activists are calling for a nationwide strike on March 1st.
Their goal: a “radical transport transition and better working conditions in local transport”.
The mobility transition cannot work if there are no longer any staff who want to work in this sector.
Is the movement that represents school strikes and protest marches changing?
And can Fridays For Future (FFF) still live up to its own claim to non-partisanship?
The activists explain that the entire year will be dedicated to mobilizing young people.
Not just to increase voter turnout for the state elections.
There will be a broader campaign as part of the European elections in the course of the spring.
Despite the alliances, “new strategies will not replace the old mechanisms,” Neubauer tells
BuzzFeed News Deutschland
, a portal owned by
Ippen.Media
.
People are aware of the impact of the mass protests and the images; they will continue to exist in the future.
Climate activist Luisa Neubauer © Hami Roshan/IMAGO
More on the topic: 10 signs at the anti-right demonstrations that are simply on point
Luisa Neubauer explains why climate protection and the fight against right-wing extremism belong together
According to Neubauer, positioning against the right and standing up for climate protection are not a contradiction.
After five years – the movement celebrated its birthday in December 2023 – “the easy goals” have been achieved, explains the activist.
For example, that discussions about climate protection have become a matter of course.
But activism is becoming “more complex”.
Today there are new challenges, for example from the right-wing fringe.
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If you add up the number of demonstrators over the last few weeks, according to spokeswoman Brünger, more than 3.2 million people have taken a stand against right-wing extremism in the last few weeks.
Fridays For Future played “no small role” in this.
“We have the practice and know-how of how to organize demonstrations and train young people for them.
We are strengthening these protests,” explains the activist.
It's not just about support.
Climate protection and democracy are interdependent and “belong together,” explain the activists.
If resources become scarcer and natural disasters become more frequent, this creates “the ideal breeding ground” in which right-wing extremism can grow and democracy can collapse.
It is therefore now important to take active measures against it.
Luisa Neubauer and climate impact researcher Stefan Rahmstorf © private
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100 billion euro special fund – Fridays For Future makes clear demands to the government
“Especially in East Germany,” emphasizes Horn, Fridays For Future spokesman from Halle an der Saale.
Politics there has been neglecting people's needs for years.
“That’s over now,” says Horn.
Instead of austerity measures, Fridays For Future is calling for a “large investment package” for the expansion of local public transport, the introduction of climate money, an ecological agricultural transition and “justice for our generation”.
The core demand for politicians is therefore a special fund worth 100 billion euros as a first step.
They want to achieve this, among other things, by merging with Verdi.
FFF worked on this cooperation for two years.
After long discussions, the union members see themselves as climate activists because “more unites us than divides us.”
They now want to exert pressure together.
More on the topic: “The accounts will be settled in six months” – an expert explains what the demos against the right are still missing