Last Generation irk all generations with disruption campaign

Sat 15th Jul, 2023

After the airport blockades on Thursday, members of the "Last Generation" disrupted road traffic nationwide on Friday. This is justified, in their intolerant opinion by the Federal Government's insufficient cap on greenhouse gases, especially in transport.

During three protest actions in Nuremberg on Friday morning, 14 climate activists from the "last generation" blocked lanes in the morning rush hour and sometimes glues themselves to the road. According to the police, the actions were largely calm. Due to the blockades, road traffic was obstructed and impaired for hours. The affected areas were around the opera house, on the Frankenschnellweg and on the Nuremberg Plärrer.

As of today, a general decree by the city against similar actions applies in Nuremberg. "The city expressed that it did not want this type of demonstration or protest until the end of July. This means that a fine has been imposed here," said Bernd Groß, from the police headquarters in Central Franconia. The activists were removed from the road by special police "glue-on teams" and then taken into custody.

Six activists were involved in a sit-in at Munich Stachus on Friday, and a supporter spontaneously joined them, reported BR police reporter Frank Jordan on site. The last activist, who had cemented his hand to the road, was freed from the road at around 8:45 a.m. Friday morning. The emergency services had to chisel out a piece of the tar. The Altstadtring was largely cordoned off during the protest.

36 sit-ins were planned in 26 cities, including Munich, Nuremberg, Berlin, Braunschweig, Dresden, Freiburg, Leipzig, Potsdam and Ulm. A spokeswoman for the climate activist group justified the day of action as follows: "With our peaceful sit-in today, we are asking the question: What should we be outraged about? About a government that breaks its own laws or about peaceful protests by citizens who do not simply break this law take it like that?" According to the activists, the federal government is breaking its own climate protection law because the Ministry of Transport, headed by Minister Wissing, is not launching an immediate climate protection program.

According to the Last Generation, their spokeswoman Carla Hinrichs confronted Chancellor Scholz in Berlin on the street with the fact that the government was breaking the climate protection law. The climate protection group then shared a video of the confrontation. Scholz defended the government's climate protection policy. In 2040, Germany will be "CO2-neutral", which, as the "fourth largest economy in the world", is a "big burden", emphasized Scholz.

Traffic blockades in Berlin, Dresden and Braunschweig
In Berlin, the climate activists of the "last generation" blocked several traffic junctions. Among other things, more than a dozen activists protested at the roundabout around the Victory Column, as a dpa reporter observed on site. Several people stuck to the road there, blocking Hofjägerallee and Straße des 17. Juni in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate. After a good hour, traffic at the Victory Column was back to normal. According to the dpa reporter, the police initially had two activists glued to the ground because they did not affect traffic.

In Dresden, six activists blocked Washingtonstrasse in the direction of the city center, the police said. Some of them glued themselves to the street. In the north of Leipzig, activists blocked federal highway 2. Both sit-ins were ended by the police.

Vigilante justice again: climate activist injured in Bottrop
In Braunschweig, activists blocked a street in the city center during rush hour. There was criticism of this from the Lower Saxony state government. "According to the Prime Minister, this is harmful to climate protection," said a spokeswoman for Stephan Weil (SPD). Climate protection is a major task for society as a whole. "If you then antagonize large parts of society, that doesn't help the cause."

On Thursday, activists paralyzed the airports in Hamburg and Düsseldorf for several hours by overcoming the fences, running onto the runways and sticking themselves close to the runways. In Hamburg, air traffic was completely suspended for a few hours on the first day of vacation. Several flights were diverted or delayed in Düsseldorf.

 

Article translated and rewritten from BR news

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