On Wednesday morning there was a Germany-wide raid against climate activists of the last generation. According to media reports, a total of 15 properties were searched in Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein. Bank accounts are said to have been confiscated. There are said to have been no arrests for the time being.
The group’s website was also confiscated and shut down by order of the public prosecutor’s office. The accusation is “education and support of a criminal organization”. The investigations are under the leadership of the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office. She is taking action against seven suspects. According to the “Spiegel” they are accused of collecting around 1.4 million euros through donations. Most of the sum is said to have been spent on criminal activities. There are also said to have been attempts to sabotage the oil pipeline between Trieste and Ingolstadt. Searches in an activist camp Also near Bramsche in Lower Saxony, the police moved out on Wednesday to an operation in a camp of activists who are against a planned clearing of a forest protest for a freeway. The police and public prosecutor in Osnabrück announced that the search was related to investigations into “various crimes” for which residents of the camp were allegedly responsible. Among other things, it is about the damage to high seats for hunting. In addition, according to their own statements, the police and public prosecutor are investigating arson on an excavator and illegal felling of trees, which are said to have been built into the camp afterwards. The aim of the searches is to find “evidence and stolen goods” and to identify possible suspects. The clearing of the camp was “explicitly” not planned, it said. Great outrage in the climate protection scene. Climate activists from various groups reacted with sharp criticism. The group “Ende Gelände” criticized on Twitter that there were raids on those “who warn about the climate crisis and not on those who are responsible for it”. The Last Generation itself asked on Twitter when lobby structures would be raided and “fossil government funds” confiscated. Extinction Rebellion activists also expressed their solidarity with the accused. “We only put a stop to lobbies and corporations together,” the environmental activists wrote on Twitter on Wednesday and expressed their support. The deputy chairman of the left, Lorenz Gösta Beutin, called the raids completely exaggerated. The people who counted themselves among the so-called last generation relied on peaceful civil disobedience to draw attention to the climate catastrophe and the failure of the federal government. Germany’s Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) wrote on Twitter: “Climate protection is a real and urgent concern. Climate protection against the rule of law, democracy and the population, on the other hand, is not.” As early as December there had been a Germany-wide raid on climate protectionists. Back then, there were several attacks on the PCK Schwedt refinery. Among other things, the oil supply was interrupted. In some cases it was just an attempt. The suspicion of the formation of a criminal organization could be given if the accused repeatedly arranged to commit crimes, explained the Brandenburg public prosecutor at the time. There are currently debates in several federal states as to whether the last generation is a criminal organization or not. Protection of the Constitution: Last generation not yet extremist The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) currently sees no sufficient evidence to classify the group as extremist . The fact that the group sometimes acts criminally does not change that. BfV President Thomas Haldenwang emphasized in March: “The Office for the Protection of the Constitution takes a close look at how the situation is developing every day.”
