Following the indictment of five members of the German protest group Last Generation, climate activists in Berlin protested against the prosecutor’s decision and announced further actions.
“What we did is right. I can only say: carry on,” said Edmund Schultz, one of the defendants, in Berlin on Wednesday afternoon.
Several alliances had called for a demonstration at Washingtonplatz, the square in front of Berlin’s main station, because the public prosecutor’s office in the town of Neuruppin, northwest of the city, had filed charges against five members of the climate activist group. suspicion of formation of a criminal organization.
The Public Prosecution Service accuses the defendants of carrying out several attacks on facilities of 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-Vorpommern.
They are also accused of actions at the capital’s BER airport and the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.
The defendants stressed on Wednesday that they would not be deterred from protesting despite the expected trial at the Potsdam court.
“They want to put us behind bars. We will continue to be loud,” Henning Jeschke wrote on the social media platform X.
“Our government is acting criminally,” was another message from the Last Generation group.
The leading candidate of the far-left party Die Linke (Left) for the European elections, climate and refugee activist Carola Rackete, also told dpa: “The activists are the wrong people in the dock.”
She referred to the ruling of the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg, according to which the German government must strengthen its program to combat climate change.
Last Generation is once again calling for a meeting at Washingtonplatz on Saturday at 12:00 noon (10:00 GMT). Actions are also planned for the cities of Erfurt, Karlsruhe and Bonn on Saturday.
With the meetings, Last Generation wants to increase pressure on the German government to take stronger action to combat the climate crisis.
The Public Prosecution Service in the southern city of Munich has also been investigating five climate activists from Last Generation for more than a year on suspicion of membership of a criminal organization and two others for providing support. The Public Prosecution Service in the northern city of Flensburg is also conducting a corresponding investigation.
