Now the creative people are in demand – on the Internet, in the editorial offices, at the regulars’ table. How are you supposed to vilify or praise these new activists? Climate bungler? Air conditioning sucker? They call themselves “The Tire Extinguishers”, which in German means something like tire extinguishers. The police locate the activists who let the air out of the tires in several cars in the municipality of Haar this week on the left spectrum and assume a politically motivated crime. And anyone who gets caught doing one of these in Bavaria has to be careful not to be held in preventive detention for 30 days and spend Christmas in Stadelheim.
In view of the protests that flare up almost every day, above all by the “last generation”, a few questions arise. Now, is it more effective to disable cars directly by flattening their tires, or is it better to stick to roads in larger numbers to slow down traffic? And what kind of glue actually holds up in this horrible November-grey weather? The climate activists who made a trip to Munich Airport on Thursday morning apparently had the wrong sticker with them, after all they did not succeed in occupying a runway permanently, as intended, and thus suspending air traffic.
But there is one thing you can always rely on: Whenever the last generation calls for protest, the net goes steeply – and mostly in one direction. The majority of the comments can be summed up as follows: The work-shy rabble should rather look for a meaningful occupation, only harm their own concerns with their protest, and commit criminal acts. Or loosely based on Prime Minister Markus Söder: They should rather plant trees that he can then hug.
But there are other voices as well. “Finally a good action!” This is how Otto Bußjäger, Grasbrunn’s former mayor and current district councilor of the Free Voters, commented on the action of the last generation at the airport. “It hits climate sinner No. 1,” added Höhenkirchner, who claims that he hasn’t boarded a plane for years because of climate protection.
Whether airplanes are really the worst of all climate sinners certainly requires a more detailed analysis. Cruise ships, for example, can claim to compete at least on an equal footing – it just doesn’t stick as well in front of a mega-liner on the open sea as on a runway. But it doesn’t have to be the airport. Otto Bußjäger would at least have good opportunities in the district to fight for the climate in a public way – for example on Ottostrasse in Ottobrunn or Ottobrunner Strasse in his home town.