The comma is easy to put down, but the degree sign causes problems. It wobbles and won’t stop at the five. As soon as the 1.5 degrees stand still, they fall over. The wind. The setting up of the large numbers, cobbled together from black cardboard, is not without appropriate symbolism. Activists from Attac, the organization critical of globalization, set up the symbol of the Paris climate protection agreement in front of the fair.
Volker Wissing, Minister of Transport, and the car industry have come, represented by Attac people with cardboard masks. They light the climate protection symbol. Wissing and the industry posing triumphantly in front of the flames, an Attac choreographer conducting: Thumbs up now! Now a victory sign! The photographers stand in the ash rain. “Don’t burn our future”, says a banner, don’t burn our future, and: “Traffic turnaround now!”
All in all, the first day of the fair was relatively calm on the part of the opponents – compared to the last IAA. Back then, activists blocked freeways in the mornings by abseiling down bridges. Various climate groups also want to disrupt the current IAA, and unannounced actions are to be expected.
The first begins just before Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) lands in the helicopter to open the IAA. Activists from Extinction Rebellion climb into the exhibition lake right at the main entrance. They are smeared with black paint and burn smoke flares to symbolize pollution from automobile traffic. Their protest is also directed against the federal government. A man in the water is a reminder of Article 20a of the Basic Law, which stipulates environmental protection as a national goal. The government is opposed to this. A policewoman addresses the protesters with a megaphone: They are on private property and the owner of the property does not tolerate any gatherings on his premises. What is meant is the Munich trade fair, explains a police spokesman.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion climb into the exhibition lake. They are stained with black paint and burn smoke flares.
(Photo: Uwe Lein/dpa)
As soon as this campaign is over, a good 100 heavily laden cyclists roll to the exhibition lake. “Without kerosene to Bavaria”: Under this motto, the “Students for Future” group organized a bike tour from Tübingen, Frankfurt and Leipzig to Munich. They also call for an ecological turnaround in traffic. It is a colorful group of young people who settle down on the narrow meadow by the lake, always closely accompanied by the Munich police.
This published a video on Monday evening in which climate activists are blamed for other work being left behind – such as the fight against child abuse or telephone fraud. The video sparked controversy on social media. While a number of users welcome the video as important information, there is also a lot of criticism. The video is propaganda against the climate movement, the police are violating their duty of neutrality. According to the police, around 200 officers have been on duty every day for the past two weeks because of protest actions by the “last generation”. 4,500 police officers will be deployed during the six-day IAA.
A motorist slaps a “Last Generation” activist at a roadblock.
(Photo: Jason Cheplyakov/dpa)
During a LG blockade on Einsteinstrasse on Monday afternoon, a driver slapped an activist. A video shows this scene. The police said they were investigating the man. According to the police, there are a total of eight drivers who the police are investigating because of their reaction to blockades. A blockade of Sonnenstraße by a LG group failed on Tuesday morning. The police intercepted her in the pedestrian zone. The activists then settled down in their high-visibility vests on Neuhauser Strasse. Pedestrians had no trouble bypassing them. A second blockade attempt in the early afternoon also failed due to police intervention.