Last generation: After raid: UN emphasizes importance of climate protectors

After the crackdown on the Last Generation protest group, the United Nations has highlighted the importance of climate activists and their actions.

At the same time, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the German Press Agency that, despite the prevailing fundamental right to peaceful demonstrations, governments naturally have a responsibility to enforce laws and ensure security. Chancellor Olaf Scholz also insists on compliance with the rule of law. The last generation announced protest marches in many cities, the left rated the action against the group as politically motivated.

What has happened

Police and prosecutors raided the last generation on Wednesday. Around 170 officers searched 15 apartments and business premises in seven federal states, as announced by the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office. The charge is to form or support a criminal organization. The activists deny being criminals, although several have already been convicted of criminal offenses, some even imprisoned.

The group’s members regularly draw attention to their demands with sit-ins, sticking themselves to the streets. There have also been repeated campaigns in museums. They are also accused of attacking oil industry facilities. With their protest, the last generation wants to denounce climate policy deficits – for example with a view to the immense climate-damaging emissions from car traffic. The activists are calling for a so-called social council to plan the end of the use of fossil fuels in Germany by 2030. They also demand a speed limit of 100 km/h on the motorway and a 9-euro ticket.

What the UN says

“Climate activists – led by the moral voice of young people – have continued to pursue their goals through the darkest of days. They need to be protected and we need them now more than ever,” Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York. At crucial moments, protesters were instrumental in persuading governments and business leaders to do much more. Without them, global climate targets would already be out of reach. However, despite the fundamental right to peaceful demonstrations, governments naturally have a responsibility to enforce the law and ensure security.

What the chancellor thinks

Scholz defended his statement that the activists who drew attention to themselves with traffic blockades and daubing art were “completely crazy”. “I don’t mince my words,” the chancellor told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. He welcomed the fact that crimes committed by the group were being prosecuted. He did not want to comment on the question of legal classification as a criminal organization. “It’s not up to me to decide that, it’s up to our judiciary, and they act independently.” But he added: “Criminal offenses are clearly being committed here repeatedly, and the rule of law cannot ignore that.”

What other climate protectors think

The “Fridays for future” activist Luisa Neubauer raised allegations against politics and the judiciary after the raid. “While the FDP is maltreating the climate goals undisturbed, various state bodies are working remarkably unprofessionally to check the climate movement and especially the last generation for their loyalty to democracy,” she wrote in a guest article for the “Frankfurter Rundschau”. The climate movement insists on compliance with applicable law, namely the Climate Protection Act.

What doubts there are about the accusation of criminal organization

Many experts doubt that the activists’ dismissed accusation that they belong to a criminal organization can be substantiated. Only if the group’s declared climate policy motives are dismissed as pretentious can their illegal actions – such as coercion – be reinterpreted as the actual main purpose. Road blockades are annoying for some, but not a significant threat to public safety. And it is difficult to derive radical or even extremist ideas from the group’s fairly moderate demands.

According to Berlin’s department head Felor Badenberg (independent), who chaired the two-day conference of justice ministers, the topic did not play a role.

What the Union and the Left say

Several Union politicians questioned the decision of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution not to monitor the last generation. The domestic spokeswoman for the left in the Bundestag, Martina Renner, raised serious allegations about the latest investigations: “The criminal charge against the last generation is obviously politically motivated and is related to the elections in Bavaria,” she told the portal “t-online “.