The Last Generation climate group is once again making a big splash. In letters she has given ultimatums to various cities. Anyone who wants to avoid further road blockades should publicly support their goals for a radical climate change. Some rejected this outraged, including Berlin and Cologne. There, activists stuck to main roads again on Friday and caused long traffic jams. In Hamburg, too, the group threatened “maximum disruption of public order”. Other cities negotiated with the young people and achieved a halt to protests.
Can you do that? Or is the state open to blackmail? “In the case of blackmail, you would have to do something that goes against you, that goes against your own position or leads to your own damage, and none of that is the case here,” said Hanover’s Mayor Belit Onay (Greens) in early March on ARD. “We have a common denominator here, and that is climate protection.”
Although they reject protests: Every second German is in favor of deals with climate stickers
Onay was the first to strike a deal with the Last Generation, publicly backing their demands, including a “social council”, a permanent €9 ticket and a speed limit. Now the city has peace again from the “climate stickers”. Marburg and Tübingen followed. The group also announced that there would be no protests for Greifswald after the city leaders had promised on Friday.
For the first time, the activists don’t just sit in storms, rain or sunshine with hands glued to crossroads or freeway ramps, but at the table of political decision-makers. “It’s gratifying that more and more politicians, regardless of the assessment of our form of protest, understand that our substantive concerns are of existential importance and that we protest for the common good,” the group wrote on Twitter.
It is clear that many of the disturbances of the last generation are now extremely annoyed – including many who find climate protection important. A color attack on the Basic Law artwork in Berlin even earned them a comparison with the Taliban. When they call for “Resistance in Berlin” at the end of April, some are already groaning. In the latest ZDF “Politbarometer”, 80 percent of those questioned rejected the group’s illegal actions, such as blocking main traffic arteries. On the other hand, 55 percent of those surveyed think that agreements by municipalities to end such protests are right, 41 percent not right.
Professor thinks deals with glue are possible: “It’s still a free decision”
Not only Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) is one of the prominent opponents. Gerd Landsberg, General Manager of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, also disagrees. “Regularly, the procedure involves criminal offenses such as coercion, dangerous intervention in road traffic and property damage,” said Landsberg of the German Press Agency. It is “not usual for criminals to be met with political promises”.
So, can politics be blackmailed? The Erfurt law professor Tim Wihl waves it away. It is not about blackmail because this requires a monetary claim, Wihl told the dpa. He also doesn’t see any coercion on the part of the city leaders in the road blockades or the threat to do so. On the one hand, the pressure exerted is not so great that the mayor has to bow. “It’s still a free decision,” said Wihl. On the other hand, it is “questionable whether the remedy is reprehensible”. The case law of the Federal Constitutional Court from the 1980s and 1990s is clear: “Even robust blockade actions fall under the right of assembly.”
If a company threatens to close a plant under certain political conditions, nobody thinks of coercion, said Wihl. “This is uncomfortable for mayors and they would probably meet with the company. It’s similar with large demonstrations: they build up pressure to meet. It is no different with the blockades of the last generation.”
Mayor of Cologne calls adhesives “coercion that I cannot give in to”
Other lawyers see things very differently – such as the Mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker. “I don’t think you can stand up and say if I don’t get what I want, then I’m stuck,” Reker said on Deutschlandfunk. “For me, that’s a coercion that I can’t give in to.” The Hamburg public prosecutor’s office assessed the letter from the activists to the city as possible coercion by constitutional bodies. Courts across the country have now convicted “climate glue” of coercion. Wil says: wait and see. Karlsruhe has the last word.
There is a similar constitutional discussion about the Last Generation’s central demand for a “social council”. This is to be filled by drawing lots and reflecting the breadth of society. “Vegans: inside and car fans discuss common solutions, because they also have a shared interest: protecting the basis of life on this planet and making the way there socially just,” is how the group imagines it. The Council is to make proposals “how Germany will become emission-free by 2030” – well before the current target year of 2045. And the government should publicly promise to introduce these measures as legislative projects in Parliament.
Another necessity? Should the elected parliament be bypassed here and thus the constitutional order be undermined? Legal expert Wihl advises to differentiate. The idea of citizens’ councils as a supplement to parliamentary work has been around for a long time, and in countries like Ireland they have contributed to consensus decisions, for example on same-sex marriage. However, such a body cannot make binding specifications. “For such a replacement parliament, you would first have to change the constitution,” said Wihl.
