Demonstrations
Scholz: Participants should stop climate hunger strike
Olaf Scholz said his government’s goal was to stop climate change. Photo
© Jan Woitas/dpa
Activists have been starving themselves for weeks in order to force the Chancellor to make a government statement on the dramatic nature of climate change. Scholz does not respond to this – but appeals again to the participants.
Several activists from the “Starve until you’re honest” campaign have been on hunger strike in Berlin for weeks, some of them in serious health conditions. They are demanding a government statement from Scholz. In it, the Chancellor is expected to say, among other things, that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is already too high and that there is no CO2 budget left.
During the public discussion in Erfurt, a citizen asked Scholz specifically whether he considered this statement to be fact or opinion. With a statement, he could possibly end the hunger strike. However, Scholz did not answer directly. He merely confirmed that it had been scientifically proven that there was man-made climate change. It was the aim of his government to stop this climate change. In doing so, it kept its eye on the goal of stopping global warming at 1.5 degrees if possible.
But science does not automate things. “What we want politically has to be discussed in a democracy,” said Scholz. Decisions cannot be forced by saying that we are not going to eat any more. Nor can they be left to the courts. “We have to win majorities among the citizens for what we think is right. That does not come from outside.”