[ad_1]
On May 24, 170 police in Germany staged a series of raids across the country, bursting into fifteen properties from Bavaria to Berlin. The police carted off evidence, seized bank accounts, and froze assets as part of an ongoing investigation. Such tactics might bring to mind a crackdown on a drug ring or arms smugglers. Instead, the target of these raids was climate advocacy group Letzte Generation (Last Generation).
Letzte Generation is a relatively new climate group, founded in August 2021. Their first major action was a hunger strike by seven activists, demanding a public conversation on climate with the then-candidates for the country’s elections to succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor. Weeks into the campaign, Olaf Scholz, the current Chancellor, agreed to a sit-down, though the activists were far from satisfied with his climate plan.
These days, the group organizes marches and rallies demanding the country eliminate all human-caused emissions by 2030, two decades earlier than the 2050 goal that underpins most international climate negotiations. They’re also known for gluing themselves to roadways to block traffic, throwing paint on public monuments, and, most memorably, hurtling mashed potatoes on a painting by Claude Monet at a museum in Potsdam (the painting wasn’t damaged). Those are similar to the tactics being employed by other new, radical climate activist groups in the U.K. and across Europe. Members of the Letzte Generation say those actions are necessary to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis (though some other climate groups disagree). The methods have divided, and in some cases infuriated, the German public. Motorists trapped behind blockades have assaulted demonstrators. Recently, a truck driver attempted to run them over.
Across Europe, tensions between climate protesters and law enforcement have escalated in recent months. Earlier in…
[ad_2]
