Germany鈥檚 Last Generation climate activists announce strategy change, ditch roadblock protests
Clean Energy Wite / ARD
Climate activist group Last Generation, whose members are famous for gluing themselves to roads to halt traffic, have announced that they will no longer use this controversial form of protest. 鈥淎 new era of our peaceful, civil resistance begins 鈥� the chapter of sticking and road blockades ends,鈥� the group said in a press release on their 鈥溾��. According to a by public broadcaster ARD, Berlin police counted 550 Last Generation protests in the capital alone last year, and the city鈥檚 public prosecutor launched 3,700 proceedings against the activists over the past two years.
Gluing themselves to roads enabled a small number of protesters to cause considerable disruption. However, their actions have provoked mainly negative reactions from politicians, the media and the general public, following overwhelming sympathy with the broader Fridays for Future movement. The group says that over the past two years their numbers have grown, and they will instead hold 鈥渄isobedient public assemblies鈥� and increase their actions at 鈥減laces of fossil destruction,鈥� such as oil pipelines, energy company headquarters and airports. They are also calling on president Frank-Walter Steinmeier to 鈥渟peak publicly and honestly about climate destruction and the necessary changes,鈥� saying that honesty about the scale of the problem 鈥渨ould create a sustainable social foundation of trust.鈥�
