In an investigation of climate activists who are believed to have formed or supported a criminal organization due to their contentious activities, German police have conducted raids in seven states.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= BBC News |
Carla Hinrichs, a spokesman for the Last Generation, was among those searched; the group said that while she was in bed, armed police burst down her door.
The last Generation has been causing traffic problems in German cities for months.
Their campaign has been branded "completely crazy" by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The question of whether Last Generation can be classified as a criminal organization legally has been the subject of a fierce cultural conflict in Germany for weeks.
While left-wingers have expressed concern about a potentially hazardous authoritarian crackdown, Conservative MPs have called for harsher penalties, including jail time.
The group's website was taken down and two accounts were frozen as a result of the 170 police officers who participated in the raids on apartments and other premises on Wednesday in Berlin, Bavaria, Dresden, Hamburg, and other cities.
25 armed police officers went after Ms. Hinrichs' flat in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin around 07:00 on Wednesday, according to her coworkers.
Seven individuals, aged 22 to 38, are accused of arranging a campaign to raise at least €1.4 million (£1.2 million) in funds, mostly to finance "further criminal acts," although no arrests have been made public. The raids, according to police and prosecutors, were conducted to determine Last Generation's organizational structure.
Two of the activists who are being looked into are allegedly involved in a plot to disrupt an oil pipeline that crosses the Alps from Trieste on the Italian coast to Ingolstadt last year.
Last Generation activists are having an influence in Berlin. Roads obstructed by protestors are now frequently mentioned in radio traffic updates. Homeowners have been receiving flyers inviting neighbors to Last Generation training or informational meetings.
Twelve main streets were closed off last week as protesters plastered themselves to the pavement or to moving vehicles. However, some drivers have retaliated against these street sit-ins. Videos on social media inundate with angry motorists yelling at activists.
Most Germans, according to polls, disapprove of the group's strategies. In a survey conducted last month by the left-leaning publication Der Spiegel, 79% of participants believed the group's actions were improper, while only 16% supported the protestors.
However, that does not imply that all Germans favor a crackdown.
The group's tactics, according to many left-wing and Green politicians and analysts, irritate people rather than convert them to ecology. However, they contend that activists should still be able to conduct peaceful campaigns.
Raids were conducted throughout Germany.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= BBC News |
Using the chancellor's "completely crazy" comment as a hashtag, Last Generation attacked Wednesday's raids and questioned when the authorities would instead search "lobby structures and confiscate government fossil funds."
Ende Gelände, a different climate action group, expressed dissatisfaction with the raids, saying that they targeted those who were trying to "raise the alarm about the climate crisis rather than those responsible for it."
Last Generation stated that it will continue its operations, and several of its online supporters hypothesized that the raids would energy support for their cause.
Conservatives and other lawmakers from the two ruling parties, the FDP and center-left SPD, have praised the police response. While disagreeing with the radical tactics of the group, some Green lawmakers said they thought the raids could have been overly intrusive.
On Wednesday afternoon, left-wing and environmental organizations announced a march in Berlin, followed by other protests in Leipzig, Munich, and Potsdam. The raids were described by Greenpeace and Linke party representatives as a "new level of escalation" by the police that endangered the fundamental democratic freedom to protest.
The Last Generation is advocating for a 100 km/h (62 mph) speed restriction on highways.
It was crucial in the demonstrations in January in the village of Lützerath against the construction of an open coal mine, where activist Greta Thunberg was briefly jailed.
In an act that resembled earlier protests in the UK by the climate action group Just Stop Oil, two activists hurled mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet artwork at a museum in Potsdam, close to Berlin, last October, and then they fastened themselves to a wall.
The Last Generation isn't just German. On Wednesday in Vienna, two protesters blocked off a space in front of the Austrian parliament in defiance of a law prohibiting demonstrations there.
Three Italian activists who attached themselves to a Roman-era sculpture in the Vatican museum last August were scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. The Trevi fountain in Rome was painted black by group activists as a protest against fossil fuels.
