The road blockades of the “last generation” drive many a motorist up the wall. The city is not paralyzed as announced, but thousands are already stuck in traffic again. In the House of Representatives I defended the protests as legitimate, can you still do that today? I think so, because civil disobedience has often been the starting point for social change that we are proud of today. Be it the fight for women’s suffrage or the protest of the anti-nuclear movement, which was answered with water cannons and batons.
The question of how far the Greens distance themselves from the “last generation” is repeatedly asked. Although my federal chairman, Nouripour, is right when he considers the protests to be “unproductive”, falling into a defensive attitude is just as pointless.
When young people in particular stick to the streets out of concern about the climate crisis, they are stylized as criminals, extremists or even terrorists. Again and again it is misjudged that the street blockade is a peaceful form of action, in contrast to the vigilantism of some motorists.
Vasily Franco is domestic policy spokesman for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in the Berlin House of Representatives.
Even Minister of Justice Buschmann distorts reality with his warning of “street battles”, Berlin’s Interior Senator Spranger flirts with understanding for vigilantism. The rule of law applies when criminal offenses are committed. The activists are willing to accept these, just as they accept the punishments. The commitment to the rule of law by the “Last Generation” is clearer than what is playing out in comment columns and much of the political arena.
fantasies of violence and self-defense rhetoric
7,000 demonstrations take place in the capital every year. They are protected by the Basic Law, even if they are annoying and uncomfortable. Otherwise all demos could be banished to the Brandenburger Wiese, where nobody would notice. The fathers and mothers of the Basic Law have already thought something about it. No one likes being stuck in traffic, that’s a truism.
It is repeatedly emphasized that the goals of the activists are shared, but the form of action is wrong. Drivers and police officers are the ones who suffer. The analysis is simple, but the solution is not. The activists should be “locked away, for as long as possible,” the CDU said in the plenary session of the House of Representatives. A special criminal law for “wrong” demonstrating. And even the SPD wants preventive detention, originally introduced to combat terrorism, to be expanded. In addition, there are violent fantasies and self-defense rhetoric.
But deterrence and high penalties obviously leave the activists unimpressed. If thought through to the end, the problem would only be solved if one climate activist after another ended up in prison. But would that gain anything?
Conservatives are benefiting from the debate about tightening penalties. So they don’t have to justify themselves for protests, which is the logical consequence of climate policy that has failed for decades. Seamlessly takes over traffic turn prevention minister Wissing. The self-proclaimed climate chancellor Scholz looks on.
We are in the process of blatantly missing the climate targets. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. UN Secretary-General Guterres, who is known not to be a member of extremist groups, warns: “We are on the way to climate hell.” Isn’t it understandable that the younger generation in particular is losing confidence – if not even trust – in political action?
Germany is failing on its own climate protection laws while we discuss superglue and cooking oil.
Vasily Franco
With this grim reality in mind, the demands for a speed limit, a 9-euro ticket and a society council do not seem revolutionary and certainly not dangerous to the state. There is a social majority for all these questions. With each passing day we are getting closer to irreversible climate tipping points, not observing the speed limit endangers human lives and meanwhile the Federal Constitutional Court has issued a warning that “intertemporal safeguarding of freedom” has become a fundamental right. While climate policy falls short of what is necessary.
We’re still pumping billions into climate-damaging subsidies, talking about sanctions for demonstrating, but not for missing sector targets. Germany is failing on its own climate protection laws while we discuss superglue and cooking oil.
If you don’t want to rob future generations of their freedom, you have to allow what is necessary to be articulated. Until the politicians act. Otherwise we will actually become the last generation on this planet. The solution is simple and yet so difficult: the road blockades will only end when the climate protection blockades in the parliaments end.
