Climate activists blocked the port of Hamburg on Saturday. It is not always peaceful. Federal Interior Minister Faeser meanwhile warns against attacks on the energy infrastructure.
During the blockades by climate activists in Hamburg, there were clashes on Saturday. According to the police, participants in a blockade on the Kattwyk Bridge attacked the officers with pepper spray, to which they responded with pepper spray, batons and water cannons to break up the blockade.
A spokeswoman for “Ende Gelände” described the incident as “a new peak in police violence and arbitrariness against our climate protests”. The activists wrote on Twitter in the evening that the pepper spray had come from the police at the beginning. According to a police spokeswoman, there were no further blockades on Sunday.
Actions “against the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure”
“Ende Gelände” has announced actions “against the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure and colonial economic structures” for the entire weekend. The activists – including Luisa Neubauer – protested primarily against planned LNG terminals. Many wore white overalls, corona face masks and baseball caps. According to “Ende Gelände”, more than 2,000 activists took part in the blockades.
They also occupied the Köhlbrandbrücke and, among other things, the railway tracks of the Hamburg port authority in the Hausbruch district. According to them, they obstructed freight traffic in the entire port area. “We are blocking a central hub of German foreign trade here to point out the consequences of modern colonialism,” said the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion on Saturday in a statement on the occupation of the bridge.
A spokeswoman for “Ende Gelände” said the construction of new gas infrastructure was a gift to the fossil fuel industry. “The big energy companies are profiteers from the crisis. They have multiplied their profits, while in the coming winter many people will no longer know how to pay their electricity and gas bills. We are not in an energy crisis, but in a capitalist distribution crisis.”
Faeser warns of attacks on energy infrastructure
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has meanwhile warned of attacks on energy infrastructure in Germany. “We have to be prepared against possible attacks on gas terminals and other critical infrastructure,” said the SPD politician to “Bild am Sonntag”. Against the background of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, she referred to protection against cyber attacks. But there would also be new tasks: “We have to control the movements of Russian ships in the North and Baltic Seas and guard the new liquid gas terminals.”
In the interview, the minister highlighted further challenges: “And in addition to the Russian threat, it is also about fighting extremism with all your might: We are alarmed by the attempts by left-wing extremists to instrumentalize climate protests. We take that very seriously. At the On the other hand, of course, we continue to see the danger from the right.”
Numerous protest actions over several days
Already on Thursday a group of activists had blocked the access gate of the artificial fertilizer manufacturer Yara in Brunsbüttel, Schleswig-Holstein.
In Hamburg there is a multi-day protest camp in the Hanseatic city until Monday. More than 30 groups were involved, including Fridays for Future Hamburg, the Green Youth Hamburg, but also the Interventionist Left.
In addition to the blockades, there were also other actions and elevators at the weekend. Around 2,000 people set off from the Altonaer Volkspark during the first major demonstration on Saturday morning. The motto: “Against LNG, colonialism and extractivism – sink fossil capitalism!” According to the police on Sunday, up to several hundred people also took part in other demonstrations at the weekend.
Source: Stern
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