May 24, 2023
"When will they raid
the lobby structures and seize the government’s fossil fuel money?" the
group wrote in response to the raids.
German police on Wednesday
raided the climate activist group Letzte Generation, or Last Generation, seized
accounts, and shut down its website.
Last Generation is an
Extinction Rebellion-style group that uses direct-action tactics such as
blocking traffic, shutting off oil pipelines, or dousing a Monet in mashed
potatoes to call for more ambitious climate policies. The raids were part of an
investigation into seven members of the group for "forming or supporting a
criminal organization," the Prosecutor General's Office in Munich said in
a statement reported by CNN.
"When will they raid
the lobby structures and seize the government's fossil fuel money?" Last
Generation responded on Twitter, according to a translation provided by The
Guardian. The group added the hashtags "Nationwide raid" and
"VölligBekloppt," or "completely idiotic," in reference to
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who used similar language to criticize Last
Generation Monday.
A total of 170 police
officers carried out the raids that began at 7 am local time. Police searched
15 properties in seven different states: four in Berlin, three in Bavaria,
three in Hesse, and one each in Hamburg, Magdeburg, Dresden, and
Schleswig-Holstein, CNN reported.
The Bavarian state criminal
police office (LKA) ordered the searches targeting the seven defendants aged 22
to 38, the Munich prosecutor's office said, according to The Guardian.
"Suddenly a police
officer in a bulletproof vest stands by your bed and points a gun at you,"
26-year-old activist Carla Hinrichs said in an online video of her experience
of the raid.
The investigation was
prompted by "numerous criminal complaints from the population"
beginning in mid 2022, the Munich prosecutor's office said, as CNN reported.
Authorities accused the
activists of "organizing a donations campaign to finance further criminal
acts," according to AFP. To date, the group has raised at least 1.4
million euros via its website. LKA said they have shuttered the website because
donating to the group is illegal, Reuters reported.
Police also seized two
accounts and ordered an asset freeze, according to AFP.
Beyond seeking donations,
two members of the group are suspected of trying to sabotage an oil pipeline
between Trieste, Italy and Ingolstadt, Germany in April 2022, the LKA said,
according to CNN.
Police did not arrest
anyone in Wednesday's raids, and Munich prosecutor's office spokesperson Klaus
Ruhland said they now would review the evidence they seized, Reuters reported.
"At the current stage
of the proceedings, we have affirmed the facts of criminal association,"
Ruhland said.
Last Generation emerged in
the runup to Germany's last federal election in 2021 by conducting a hunger
strike outside the Bundestag, according to The Guardian. Since then, they have
engaged in protests from blocking traffic and gluing themselves to roads and
vehicles to throwing mashed potatoes on Monet's "Grainstacks" at the
Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany, in October 2022, as The New York Times
reported at the time.
Last Generation wants the
German government to up its climate ambitions by forming a plan in line with
limiting global warming to 1.5°C, enacting an autobahn speed limit of 100
kilometers per hour, and giving residents a €9-a-month ticket for public
transportation, according to DW and The Guardian.
Authorities have criticized
them for their tactics. Just Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was
"completely crazy to somehow stick yourself to a painting or on the
street," according to DW.
German Interior Minister
Nancy Faeser defended the raids.
"Legitimate protest
always ends where crimes are committed and the rights of others are
infringed," Faeser said.
Yet Last Generation and
other climate advocates point out that the risks posed by higher temperatures
and extreme weather events far outscale any disruption caused by a highway or
museum protest. In summer of 2021, for example, flooding followed by record
rainfall killed at least 120 people in Germany and Belgium and destroyed tens
of thousands of homes, surprising climate scientists with the level of
devastation triggered.
"Do we have to
experience a drought in Germany first, suffer from food shortages…, before we
understand that Last Generation is... not criminal?" spokesperson Aimee
Van Baalen told reporters Wednesday, according to Reuters.
German climate activist and
researcher Tadzio Müller told DW that targeting Last Generation and other
activist groups was "a case of shooting the messenger."
"[Society] doesn't
want to know about the climate or the climate emergency. And therefore, the
Last Generation is choosing tactics that disrupt the kind of normality that
people are clinging on to," he said.
In response to the raids,
Last Generation has come out swinging, relaunching its website under a new
address and calling for nationwide protests.
"The government's
approach is intended to intimidate and create fear. But we cannot and will not
allow ourselves to remain in this fear," the group said on its new site.
"The federal government is leading us into climate hell and is stepping on
the accelerator. We are therefore expanding the protest to the whole country
and call on everyone to take part in a protest march near them on
Wednesday."
The group tweeted that
solidarity actions had sprung up across Germany Wednesday in response to the
raids, including in Berlin, Dresden, Hannover, and Leipzig.
Other environmental groups
offered statements of support. Greenpeace Germany "sharply
criticized" the raids in a statement on Twitter.
"Peaceful protest can
be uncomfortable. In fact, it often has to in order to be effective," the
group said. "People who campaign for more climate protection must not be
criminalized while politicians ignore climate targets."
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