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Expressing solidarity with the "Last Generation": Is the trust of the members in democracy being lost?
Photo: IMAGO/JONAS GEHRING / IMAGO/aal.photo
The »Last Generation« is shocked after Wednesday's searches – and announces new protests. And according to experts, it could not stay that way. Extremism researcher Matthias Quent sees the danger that the investigators' actions against the climate protection group will lead to radicalization.
The example that should be set could have "deterrent effects that backfire," Quent told the dpa news agency. It could lead to people who are committed to climate protection not feeling supported by the state, but abandoned. "This can lead to individuals becoming radicalized," Quent said.
Police and prosecutors had proceeded on Wednesday with a nationwide raid against the climate protection group. Around 170 officers searched 15 homes and business premises in seven federal states, according to the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office and the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation. The accusation is of forming or supporting a criminal organization.
Seven defendants, who are between 22 and 38 years old, are being investigated. Initially, there were no arrests. The activists vehemently denied being criminals. On Wednesday evening, hundreds of people demonstrated in Berlin in solidarity with the group. Protest marches are planned for Thursday in Potsdam and Munich, among other places.
"It's remarkable how calm they stay"
According to the public prosecutor's office, the background to the investigations and searches are numerous criminal complaints. The group regularly draws attention to the consequences of global warming with sit-ins and actions in museums. The members often glue themselves to roads, cars or even works of art.
Researcher Quent said, however, that he sees no evidence of radicalization in the "last generation" so far. On the contrary, I find it remarkable how calm they remain, even when they are attacked." The activists stoically did what they had been doing all along. "I don't really see any indicators in the sense of radicalization towards more extreme means or violence or the rejection of democracy – in other words, what we describe as extremism."
The strategy of this group is not to cause damage through violence, but it is always about the public effect. The activists' remedy is not damage, but provocation and irritation. Quent also pointed out that there was no discernible increase in actions.
So far, the »Last Generation« has always distinguished the fact that the activists show their faces, that they make reformist demands and not revolutionary ones. However, there is a danger "that such things will tip over, because the last trust that may still be there in democracy and the rule of law will be lost by some," said Quent. This has been found again and again in research in social movements in recent decades.
Gysi warns of escalation by the judiciary
Berlin's new Senator for Justice, Felor Badenberg, called the group's actions "strange." Who is responsible if someone is late to the hospital?" said the former vice president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. She went on to criticize: "There are people who can't pick up their children from daycare on time, can't get to their parents in need of care, and even business people who can't keep appointments, miss flights, have financial losses."
Of course, it is good that young people are interested in politics, take to the streets and demonstrate. "What irritates me about the Last Generation is the chosen form of protest. I find it stressful that the activists coerce other people by means of violence – in the legal sense – on a daily basis.«
The left-wing politician Gregor Gysi once again called for a closer exchange with the activists. He told the Tagesspiegel: "The escalation by the judiciary is the wrong way." Many actions therefore go too far for him. But: "If politics and the judiciary escalate, young people will also escalate. Where do you want the development to go?«
At the end of November, Gysi had defended an activist in court in Berlin as a lawyer who had glued himself to the asphalt during road blockades in Berlin.
apr/dpa