The interior ministers of the federal states and their colleague Nancy Faeser from the federal government had decreed a thick program: they dealt with 81 topics from Wednesday to Friday at the meeting of the conference of interior ministers in Munich. They decided to stop deportations to Iran, as well as measures for better civil protection, and continued the dispute over immigration law, which was mainly led by the Union. But at the final press conference another topic dominated: the activists of the “last generation”.
With their sticking and smearing actions on streets, runways and in museums, these are a major controversial issue, especially since ex-Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) called them an emerging “Climate RAF” and caught fierce opposition, including from the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang. Hesse’s Minister of the Interior, Peter Beuth (CDU), did not go as far as Dobrindt. But the actions of what he calls “radical so-called activists” have nothing to do with peaceful protest, they are criminal offenses.
Lower Saxony Pistorius throws in moderating words
Because they committed such regularly and apparently orchestrated, Beuth announced: The CDU-led countries would check “to what extent it is not even a criminal organization.” But his colleague Boris Pistorius (SPD) from Lower Saxony interjected: The “formation of criminal organizations” is a criminal offense in Germany – that’s why the courts, not the interior ministers, checked whether this was fulfilled.
But Bavaria’s CSU Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann also said that one must “exhaust all means of the rule of law” – and explicitly meant the controversial preventive detention, which can be ordered in Bavaria for 30 days and extended by another 30 days. Recently, the Free State was also ordered against climate activists. They were only released after the “Last Generation” announced a week ago that they would pause their actions. It is about the “effective prevention” of illegal actions, said Herrmann, at least in “exceptional cases”.
Boris Pistorius, not really known as a softie on internal security, was once again irritated. When it comes to preventive detention, you have to “weigh things very carefully” – after all, it’s about “putting people in prison who have not yet committed a crime”. In Lower Saxony there has never been a case in which a possible future crime by climate activists would have been so serious that it would have justified precautionary detention.
The activists want to block streets in Munich on Monday
In Lower Saxony that would not be for 30, but for ten days, in Berlin only for two. Federal Interior Minister Faeser campaigned in Munich for the states to find uniform regulations. The rest is up to the states.
In Bavaria, the discussion as to whether climate activists should be locked up as a preventive measure could now start again. Because also on Friday, the “Last Generation” announced new campaigns for the coming week. In a digitally held press conference with a good 120 participants, the activists declared that they wanted to block streets in Munich on Monday; Actions are also planned in Berlin and other cities. This could include protests at airports as well as at other “poor people”.
The group will demonstrate “with a bunch of other people,” said Carla Hinrichs, one of the “Last Generation” spokespersons. The current week was used to train the many sympathizers. “The resistance will become stronger,” predicts Hinrichs. “He doesn’t stop at Christmas or in the New Year.”
The climate protectors do not necessarily expect sympathy for their actions
At the same time, Hinrichs reported that members of the group and their families received death threats every day, and that the reaction to the blockades was becoming increasingly aggressive. At the same time, however, support from social groups is increasing, for example at the Synod of the Evangelical Church or by the Education and Science Union in Bavaria.
When asked that the majority of citizens still reject the actions, Henning Jeschke, one of the founding members, says he can understand why drivers are annoyed by the blockades. On the other hand, there is the impending climate catastrophe. “We would like it to be understood emotionally as well.” Jeschke believes that then significantly more citizens would support the campaigns. Ultimately, however, the sympathy on the street is not decisive for the actions of climate protectors.
These only ended when the central demands were met: the long-term introduction of a nine-euro ticket and a speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour on motorways. “Then we would first get off the road,” explained Hinrichs. It is a sign that the federal government has understood how urgent global warming is. However, further measures to protect the climate and to fundamentally restructure the economic system would have to follow.