The nationwide crackdown on the "Last Generation" has triggered a wave of support, according to the climate protection group. The group has been "stronger than ever since yesterday," the activists wrote in a statement on Thursday. After the large-scale searches on Wednesday, the activists had called for protest marches in many cities, including Berlin and Munich. The demonstration in the capital on Wednesday evening was the largest so far, it said. Several hundred people had participated.

In addition, the climate protection group has received many donations; it announced that it would expand its protests as planned. "We are noticing that a lot of support is coming right now. We are growing and we will continue to expand our protest, because we are not doing it for fun," said activist Raphael Thelen in the ARD "morning magazine".

About 200 people also demonstrated in Leipzig on Wednesday evening. According to the police, the demonstration march ran around the inner city ring on Wednesday evening. The protest was peaceful, only a few participants had masked themselves.

Merz calls the last generation "criminals"

With a raid, the police and the public prosecutor's office had taken action against the activist group on Wednesday morning. Around 170 officers had searched 15 apartments and business premises in seven federal states, such as the Attorney General's Office in Munich and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office. The group would be accused of forming or supporting a criminal organization. The activists, on the other hand, deny being criminals.

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) also accused the climate protection movement of violating laws. "These are criminals and not interlocutors," said the CDU chairman and Union parliamentary group chairman in the Bundestag on Thursday to the television stations RTL and ntv.

"One is allowed to protest, the Federal Constitutional Court has said again and again, even short-term blockades of public life are permissible," Merz explained. At the same time, however, he referred to "massive damage to property, the damage to works of art, the smearing of memorial plaques, the sticking on the highways, now on the cars themselves": These are crimes that no longer have anything to do with legitimate protest.

However, the CDU politician left open whether the Last Generation should actually be classified as a criminal organization. "I don't have to evaluate or comment on that here," Merz said, referring to the Munich public prosecutor's office, which had justified the searches with this initial suspicion.

Vogel: A disservice to climate protection

The deputy FDP federal chairman Johannes Vogel called for more political debate on climate protection. Every action of the environmental activists leads to "an angry citizen and an angry citizen more in this country and people are upset against the goal of climate protection," said Vogel on Thursday in the ARD "morning magazine". This does a disservice to the cause.

From the point of view of the First Parliamentary Secretary of the FDP parliamentary group, it is more important to talk more about the most effective measures to be climate-neutral in 22 years.