SPD politician calls parts of the climate protests "anti-democratic"

The 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.

After the brain death of a cyclist in Berlin, climate activists came under pressure to justify themselves. Representatives of various parties called for decisive action. The cyclist was hit and run over by a truck in Berlin on Monday. 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 pasted or daubed themselves on 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 must be tough on repeat offenders."

In the “Augsburger Allgemeine”, the Greens 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 is 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, 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 organs break our common constitution with an announcement because they are destroying our livelihoods, we will resist peacefully."