Climate activists in Germany to abandon gluing themselves to streets, employ new tactics

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This article was published 29/01/2024 (971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BERLIN (AP) — A group of climate activists who infuriated many in Germany by gluing themselves to streets to block traffic said Monday that it will abandon the tactic and move on to holding what it calls “disobedient assemblies.”

The Last Generation group frequently blocked roads in Berlin and other cities over the past two years, its best-known but far from its only tactic in a campaign of protests that also included spraying the capital’s Brandenburg Gate with orange paint, among other things.

The group’s tactics were widely criticized, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz described them as “completely nutty.”

Last Generation asserted that the number of demonstrators has increased enormously in the past two years and said that “from now on we will protest in a different form — but it will remain unignorable.”

From March onward, “instead of dividing into small groups and blocking roads, we will hold disobedient gatherings with many people. And where we cannot be ignored,” the group said in a statement.

As well as that, the group said it will increasingly “directly confront” those it considers responsible for climate destruction, for instance by confronting politicians and other decision-makers in public and on camera.

It will also “increasingly visit places of fossil destruction for our protest,” it added, pointing to past protests at airports, oil pipelines and an energy company.

Last Generation’s actions have been overshadowed recently by protests against Germany’s far right and other demonstrations, including by farmers against cuts to their diesel subsidies.