Climate activists: Raids on last generation in seven countries

climate activists
Raids on Latter-Generation in seven countries

Police officers after a house search in Berlin-Kreuzberg – several dozen officers were deployed nationwide. photo

© Christoph Soeder/dpa

The climate protection activists of the last generation reap a lot of anger, but also applause for their protest actions. Now the Bavarian judiciary is resorting to drastic measures.

With a large-scale raid, the police and prosecutors have taken action against the climate protection group Last Generation. Around 170 officers searched 15 apartments and business premises in seven federal states from the early morning, as announced by the Munich public prosecutor and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office. The charge is to form or support a criminal organization.

It is determined against seven suspects who are between 22 and 38 years old. Initially, there were no arrests. According to the investigators, two of the suspects are suspected of having tried to sabotage the Trieste-Ingolstadt oil pipeline in April 2022. The apartment of spokeswoman Carla Hinrichs, who is known nationwide after many TV appearances, was also searched in Berlin-Kreuzberg. “With their guns drawn, the officers stormed into Carla’s room, where she was still in bed,” the group complained. The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office only confirmed that a unit of the Berlin police had entered the apartment. “How she entered it is police tactics and we don’t say anything about that.”

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the investigations and searches are based on numerous criminal charges. The group regularly draws attention to the fatal consequences of global warming with sit-ins and actions in museums. The members often stick to it – on streets or on works of art.

The climate protection activists themselves vehemently denied being criminals and called for protest marches next Wednesday. A first demo should be in Berlin today. “Do we first have to experience a drought in Germany, suffer from food shortages (…) before we understand that the last generation is responsible for all of our lives and that this is not criminal?” asked her spokeswoman Aimée van Baalen. Support came from Greenpeace executive director Martin Kaiser: “Responding to the uncomfortable but peaceful civil disobedience of the last generation with house searches is completely disproportionate.”

Faeser defends raid

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), on the other hand, explained that the measures show “that the rule of law cannot be played around on its nose”. Police and judiciary do not accept crimes, but act, she told the Funke media group.

The central allegation of the police and the general public prosecutor’s office is that the accused are said to have organized a fundraising campaign to finance further crimes. At least 1.4 million euros were collected. Where the money came from is the subject of the investigation. The police did not initially say how much was confiscated. The search was therefore also for “evidence of the membership structure”.

There were searches in seven federal states, specifically in Hesse in the Fulda district, in Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt (Magdeburg), Saxony (Dresden), Bavaria (Augsburg and Munich), Berlin and in the Segeberg district in Schleswig-Holstein. According to initial information, the operations were peaceful. The group’s website was also confiscated and shut down by order of the public prosecutor’s office.

Scholz: Adhesive actions of the group “completely crazy”

In the past few weeks, the environment for the activists had become rough. Annoyed drivers often punched and kicked the protesters and roughly dragged them off the street, and the Potsdam Regional Court confirmed the initial suspicion that the group could be a criminal organization for the first time.

On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also unusually critical and called the group’s sticking actions “completely crazy”. On Tuesday, eight activists smeared paint on the SPD party headquarters in Berlin in response to the statement.

The activists initially called for a “food save law” against food waste. The current demands are 100 km/h on motorways and a permanent 9-euro ticket for public transport.

“It’s a criminal organization”

The investigations are based at the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism. However, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office emphasized that this does not mean that the Last Generation is classified as extremist or terrorist. “Based on the current state of investigation, we assume that this is a criminal organization – mind you, not a terrorist one,” said the spokesman.

In the middle of summer during the holidays in many federal states, the group wants to break their blockades from July 15 to August 6. Before that, however, there should be a “super rich campaign” from June 5th. From August 7, the group wants to focus on a campaign specifically in Bavaria, where a new state parliament will be elected in the fall.

dpa

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