Following the indictment of five members of the German protest group “Last Generation”, Berlin climate activists have protested against the public prosecutor’s decision and announced further actions.
“What we did is right. I can only say: keep it up,” said Edmund Schultz, one of the defendants, on Wednesday afternoon in Berlin.
Several alliances had called for a rally on Washington Square in front of Berlin Central Station because the Neuruppin public prosecutor’s office in the northwest of the city had brought charges against five members of the climate activist group on suspicion of forming a criminal organization.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses the defendants of carrying out several attacks on facilities at the PCK Schwedt oil refinery northeast of Berlin near the Polish border and on an oil pipeline in the northeast of the state of Brandenburg and in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
They are also accused of actions at the capital’s BER airport and in the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.
The defendants emphasized on Wednesday that they would not allow themselves to be deterred from their protest despite the expected hearing before the Potsdam regional court.
“They want to put us behind bars. We stay loud,” wrote Henning Jeschke on the social media platform X.
“Our government is acting criminally,” was another message from the Last Generation group.
The top candidate of the radical left-wing party Die Linke for the European elections, climate and refugee activist Carola Rackete, also told the dpa: “The activists are the wrong people in the dock.”
She referred to the ruling of the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court, according to which the federal government must tighten its program to combat climate change.
Last Generation is once again calling for a meeting on Saturday afternoon (10:00 a.m. CET) on Washingtonplatz. Activities are also planned for Saturday in the cities of Erfurt, Karlsruhe and Bonn.
With the rallies, Last Generation wants to increase the pressure on the federal government to take stronger action against the climate crisis.
The public prosecutor’s office in the south of Munich has also been investigating five climate activists from Last Generation for over a year on suspicion of membership in a criminal organization and two others for support. The public prosecutor’s office in Flensburg, in the far north, is also conducting corresponding investigations.
