Former President of the Constitutional Court Vosskuhle considers the actions of the “last generation” to be “harmless games in the sandbox”. In an open letter to Chancellor Scholz, the group wrote that they wished “our protests were no longer needed.”
The former President of the Constitutional Court, Andreas Voßkuhle, sees no extreme approaches in historical comparison with the climate activists who stick to the streets. Compared to the actions of the anti-nuclear movement or the squatter scene, “the street gluers today organize harmless sandbox games,” said the lawyer and university teacher of the “Rheinische Post”.
The current times are not particularly ideological, said Vosskuhle. There is rather a certain lack of orientation. “In the age of globalization and digitization, everything has become more confusing, complex and faster,” he explained. “You have to get louder in order to be able to assert yourself in the associated sound.” Voßkuhle was President of the Federal Constitutional Court from 2010 to 2020.
Controversial action of the judiciary
On Wednesday, apartments and business premises were searched by activists from the “last generation” in seven federal states on behalf of the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office. The climate protection group, which protests with actions such as blocking roads for more climate protection, is accused of forming a criminal organization. The course of action of the judiciary is controversial.
According to the legal scholar Tobias Singelnstein, the question of whether the “Last Generation” is a criminal organization has not been clarified. On the one hand, activists of the “last generation” practiced legal protest, said the professor at Frankfurt’s Goethe University. They are part of a social movement that participates in the political opinion-forming process. “On the other hand, parts of this movement have also chosen forms of action that go beyond legal limits,” said the lawyer. These included property damage or coercion.
single stone: “More social negotiation process”
Whether peaceful road blockades are a punishable form of coercion is also discussed in jurisprudence and must always be examined on a case-by-case basis. “What we are currently experiencing is a societal negotiation process about how to deal with such climate protests,” explained Singelnstein.
Parts of politics positioned themselves with drastic words against the “last generation”. The increasingly severe use of criminal law and the criminalization of protest are further steps in this direction. In this respect, one could certainly speak of a politically motivated use of criminal law, explained Singelnstein.
Open letter to Chancellor Scholz
After the raids, the climate protection group reported a rush to sit-in training sessions. “Countless people have registered for sit-in training for next week,” said an open letter from the activists published on Saturday and addressed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “We wish that our protests are no longer needed. That your government acts in accordance with the constitution. That all the new people who are flocking to the Last Generation no longer find it necessary to hold sit-ins,” the Last Generation continues.
The group announced on Friday that it would initially focus on demonstrations instead of road blockades. For Wednesday, she called for participation in nationwide protest marches. At the same time, she announced an end to her protest as soon as the federal government convened a so-called social council to plan the end of the use of fossil fuels in Germany by 2030 – a core demand of the group.
Police and prosecutors raided the last generation on Wednesday. Around 170 officers searched 15 apartments and business premises in seven federal states, as announced by the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office. The charge is to form or support a criminal organization. The activists deny being criminals, although several have already been convicted of criminal offenses, some even imprisoned. The raid was criticized by many as excessive. The initiative complained that its members felt like they were being “treated with serious criminals”.
protests in the Netherlands
Meanwhile, the Dutch police arrested several hundred people at a demonstration by climate activists from the group “Extinction Rebellion” in The Hague. On Saturday, for the seventh time, they had blocked a section of the A12 motorway not far from the seat of parliament and government in the Netherlands.