Ver.di and “Fridays for Future”: tens of thousands demonstrate for traffic change

Tens of thousands followed the call from “Fridays for Future” and demonstrated across Germany for more climate protection. They were supported by the union ver.di, which wants to demand higher wages with warning strikes.

People across Germany demonstrated for more climate protection under the motto “Tomorrow is too late”. “Fridays for Future” had called for a “global climate strike”, according to the organizers, more than 220,000 people came together. The police spoke of tens of thousands of participants.

“Today we were on the streets with associations, churches and the ver.di trade union in more than 250 places across the country,” said Fridays for Future spokeswoman Annika Rittmann. According to Rittmann, the participation showed: “We don’t just stand by, we don’t give up, people finally want real climate protection!”

The mostly young participants called for a traffic turnaround and compliance with the Paris climate goals. In concrete terms, Germany should phase out coal everywhere by 2030, switch to 100 percent renewable energy supply by 2035, build no new motorways and invest more in buses and trains.

“Like we had three more planets lying around”

In Munich, the police counted around 18,000 demonstrators, according to “Fridays for Future” there were even 32,000. According to the organizers, around 6,500 activists gathered in Cologne and around 5,000 in Frankfurt. In Berlin, several thousand protesting people came together in a park next to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.

At the rally in Berlin, the activist Luisa Neubauer specifically targeted the federal government and the coal, oil and gas companies. “They thought they could get away with green words and green speeches – whether it was parties, chancellors or corporations. They thought we wouldn’t notice if they were secretly continuing, as if we had three more planets lying around on the motorway construction site.”

Neubauer criticized the FDP particularly sharply. It was Olympic-ready how “this unpopular mini-party” successfully refused to “simply say yes to any good idea”. The FDP is not only blocking the energy transition and the construction transition in the federal government, but now also the EU-wide end of the combustion engine.

Protests also took place in smaller towns – there were said to be more than 30 demonstrations and rallies in Lower Saxony alone. Large organizations such as the churches, the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND), Greenpeace and Campact had also called for participation in the climate strike.

“Fridays for ver.di”

The trade union ver.di was also present in many places. She had called for warning strikes in local public transport in several federal states. According to Verdi, a total of 60,000 employees laid down their jobs.

The spokeswoman for “Fridays for Future” Cologne, Paula Stoffels, explained: “Side by side with the employees of local public transport, we as a climate justice movement are demanding a drastic rethinking in the transport sector towards a climate-neutral and socially just mobility turnaround.” Luisa Neubauer called the alliance “historic” on Twitter.

Politics act “much, much too late”

The Hamburg climate activist Annika Kruse called for a radical departure from motorized private transport and a change in lifestyle. For example, people would have to “get away from the need for everyone to have one or two cars,” said the spokeswoman for “Fridays for Future” Hamburg. In Kruse’s opinion, the climate protection measures would not be implemented quickly enough, and they were also too vague. The most recent proposals, such as reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 70 percent by 2030, are steps in the right direction, but it all comes “much, much too late”.

In her speech in Hamburg, Rittmann also called for the number of cars to be reduced and the rail services to be expanded: “The rail network of the railways: frequency and punctuality must be increased and fares lowered.” But the Federal Ministry of Transport is doing everything so that all of this cannot be implemented. According to the police, around 5,500 people took part in the protests in the Hanseatic city.

Worldwide protests

Many people also took to the streets in other parts of the world: According to the organizers, around 25,000 participants in Vienna called for a new climate protection law for Austria – the coalition of the ÖVP and the Greens has been arguing about the target values ​​for CO2 emissions for two years. Actions also took place in Italy, Canada, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The global climate strikes took place for the twelfth time. They go back to the initiative of the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who went on strike at school on Friday and called for more climate protection.