The “Last Generation” climate activists have defended their protests. Spokeswoman Lina Johnsen said in the daily topicsthat the federal government is breaking its own climate protection laws. Other forms of protest would not have been enough to change that.
The climate activists of the “last generation” have defended the disruption to flight operations in Hamburg and Düsseldorf as a necessary form of protest. The federal government is breaking its own climate protection laws, said Lina Johnsen, a spokeswoman for the “Last Generation”, in an interview with the daily topics. “It is a great injustice that is happening here right now. People are going to the protest to draw attention to the fact that the government is abandoning the constitution. The courts ultimately have to decide whether this form of protest is criminal, as has been shown in some cases.
Johnsen said there is a “line of confrontation between society’s frustration that nothing is moving” and, on the other hand, “an inactive federal government that keeps missing the sector targets and leads us blindly over the cliff, over the cliff of climate tipping points.” Especially in the transport sector, the climate protection goals would be missed. “In the end, our survival depends on meeting our climate protection goals.”
“Majorities for climate protection are there”
The protest is disruptive and annoying and it is clear to her that a majority of the population sees it that way. “But that doesn’t change the fact that majorities are still there for climate protection,” said Johnsen. “We are doing this out of absolute necessity,” she added, referring to criticism of the group’s current actions at airports and other protests. If the “Fridays for Future” protests had been enough, “then we wouldn’t have gotten to this point at all. But peaceful civil resistance is the method of choice if you don’t know what to do other than put your own body in the way fossils to keep going and to disrupt the everyday life that will lead us over this cliff in the end.”
That affects everyone. And you are heading for a catastrophe. The urgency of the topic of climate protection has moved into the focus of society – something has already been achieved socially. “We all agree on the core, but nothing is being done. And it is the responsibility of politicians to protect our livelihoods. And they are knowingly not doing that by continuing to break their own climate protection goals,” said Johnsen.
She also accused the coalition of not making any constructive proposals for a solution and of running climate protection in the dark. It does not fail because of majorities, but because of implementation. As examples, Johnsen named a speed limit or a permanent nationwide 9-euro ticket. There are majorities for both, without being implemented.