Among other things, the groups are calling on Finance Minister Christian Lindner to keep his promise to implement a haircut for poorer countries.
Climate activists had announced intensified protests, now they have penetrated the Federal Ministry of Finance: climate protectionists from various action groups protested Monday afternoon with posters and chants in the Ministry of Finance. According to the police, they stood and sat in the entrance area and on a balcony of the large building on Wilhelmstrasse. The Last Generation group tweeted a video showing young people holding up banners in a large hall. She criticized Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), who wanted to discuss a haircut for poor countries, but had only made “an empty promise”.
According to the activists, demonstrators were also stuck in the ministry; the group “Last Generation” in particular often does this. Another group, calling itself Debt for Climate, urged Lindner to speak to them on the spot. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the finance minister complied with this request; Then they parted peacefully, they say.
The group of “Scientists Rebellion Germany” accused the finance minister of only tackling “sustainable debt restructuring” instead of the debt cut he had promised for poorer countries. The haircut belongs to the climate activists to “pay back the climate debt of the Global North” to the Global South. The emerging and developing countries in particular are suffering from decades of CO2 emissions, especially from the rich northern countries.
Occupation part of blockade actions
At the same time, demonstrators again blocked motorway exits in several places in Berlin. Some of them glued themselves to the streets. The “Last Generation” group had repeatedly blocked motorway exits in Berlin last week and announced at the weekend that they would expand their blockades or other disruptions this week. The activists call for more measures to protect the climate.
The occupation of the Federal Ministry of Finance is not the first action by climate protectionists in this direction. In the past few days, climate protection groups had increasingly triggered false fire alarms, for example in the Reichstag building, in a Bundestag office building and at a large world health congress. Berlin’s Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) criticized these actions and announced recourse claims: “Here you play with human lives. It’s not funny and we don’t find it funny,” said the senator.
Each of the alarms would trigger an emergency with the police and fire brigade, although climate activists only wanted to set “signs”. According to the senator, there were reports of misuse of emergency calls and impairment of accident prevention and emergency aid. The law provides for a fine or imprisonment of up to one year. The police are currently preparing the bills for the costs of the respective operations in connection with the false alarms, said Spranger. In addition, there would be the costs for the fire brigade of 1000 euros per operation and the personnel costs.