The debate about a possible influence of the climate protests on the fate of a cyclist who had an accident in Berlin continues to make waves. SPD politician Katja Mast accuses the activists of blackmail. Numerous politicians are demanding reactions.
SPD politician Katja Mast has described parts of the climate protests as “anti-democratic”. The first parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag referred to extortionate actions. “Our democracy doesn’t work in such a way that I can use any means to achieve my personal goals in the name of a good cause,” Mast told Der Spiegel.
Climate activists had come under pressure to justify the brain death of a cyclist in Berlin. Representatives of various parties called for decisive action. The cyclist was hit and run over by a concrete mixer in Berlin on Monday. The accident caused a nationwide stir and discussion.
According to the fire brigade, a special vehicle that was supposed to help free the injured person under the truck was stuck in a traffic jam on the city highway. This is said to have been triggered by an action by the climate protest group “Last Generation”. Activists from the group had recently repeatedly blocked streets in the capital. Members of the “Last Generation” also caused a stir in museums, where they glued themselves to or daubed paintings.
“Art is vandalized, roads blocked and infrastructure damaged – in Berlin rescue vehicles did not arrive in time for a life-threatening injury,” said Mast. Democracy should not allow itself to be blackmailed. “I personally think that the judiciary has to be tough on repeat offenders.” In the “Augsburger Allgemeine”, the Green politician Anton Hofreiter called for a quick investigation into the accident in Berlin. He emphasized: “Protests, even against the massive threats of the climate crisis, must not endanger other people’s lives.”
The parliamentary director of the FDP in the Bundestag, Stephan Thomae, told the newspaper that the judicial authorities must now examine the extent to which the adhesive blockade was partly responsible for the cyclist’s brain death. “If that’s the case, those responsible must be prosecuted.”
CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja told the news portal “t-online” that it was “disturbing” how the supporters of the “last generation” were “becoming more and more militant”. AfD faction and party leader Alice Weidel told the portal: “Even if you have to be careful with personal blame, it’s finally time for the ‘Green Street Fighters’ to question themselves and their political arm in the Bundestag and the government speaks a word of power. It cannot and must not go on like this.”
The “Last Generation” was dismayed after the news of the cyclist’s brain death. The activists have been increasingly hostile to social networks since the incident and made directly responsible for the woman’s brain death.
“We hear a lot of information, including untruths, that are spread by the big media. We should stick to safe facts, as we did in the climate catastrophe,” activist Henning Jeschke told dpa on Thursday. When asked whether the woman’s brain death would change anything about the protests, he said: “As long as our highest political bodies break our common constitution with the announcement, because they are destroying our livelihoods, we will resist peacefully.”
“We didn’t expect that an entire media system would turn against us,” said the group in another statement, from which “Spiegel” quoted. In the statement, the group complains about a “wave of allegations, untruths and hate speech” against itself and accuses the “media landscape” of “fictionally exaggerating the circumstances of the cyclist’s accident in Berlin in this form and thus democratic protest in a crisis situation delegitimized”.
Climate activist Luisa Neubauer from “Fridays for Future” called the woman’s brain death “terrible news”. In an interview with the ZDF “heute journal update”, she emphasized that civil disobedience should not endanger people. “It is also a situation that makes us as a climate movement think about reviewing our own security concepts,” said Neubauer.
