OPINION: Mysterious masterminds plan their activities. The identities of the leaders of this conspiratorial group, which German authorities say “poses a significant threat to public order”, are deliberately kept secret. The group has millions of euros at its disposal and members regularly and purposefully plan to commit crimes. In fact, recruits are selected in part for their willingness to do jail time.
It sounds like a mafia or some sort of spy syndicate. Or maybe the plot of the next Mission Impossible movie, in which a bizarrely youthful Tom Cruise disguises himself as a mysterious mastermind to infiltrate the extremist group.
But no, what the Munich public prosecutor’s office was actually talking about, when it listed this menacing faction’s attributes, was the German climate-change protest group known as Last Generation.
This is why at the end of May, in the early hours of the morning, there was a nationwide raid involving 170 police officers at 15 locations in seven states. Nobody was arrested but houses were searched, Last Generation’s website was shut down and its financing blocked.
“It was like in a movie,” law student Carla Hinrichs, the 26-year-old spokesperson for the protest group, said in an emotional video shared on social media. “You wake up because there’s a thunderous knocking on the door. And then suddenly there’s a policeman in a bullet-proof vest standing at the end of your bed pointing a gun at you.”
Members of Last Generation had been in plenty of trouble before this, regularly appearing in court for such actions as gluing themselves to the street, trespassing at airports and throwing food at artworks.
But should they really be classified as a criminal organisation? Since May’s dawn raids, that question has started something of a culture war here with chat-show regulars firing off angry tirades at each other on TV.
Conservative politicians suggest Last Generation be placed under observation by Germany’s federal spy agency. They’ve compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan and the Taliban and described them as “eco-fascists”.
However, others argue this is going too far.
“Just because you discuss parking illegally, even with the most evil intent, you’re hardly forming a criminal organisation,” one columnist wrote in current affairs magazine Der Spiegel.
The federal spy agency that could potentially surveil the group says it won’t, categorising Last Generation as “highly democratic”. Even the United Nations came out in support. In an interview, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General said: “climate activists – led by the moral voice of young people – have continued to pursue their goals even in the darkest days. They need to be protected.”
There were public demonstrations in support and Last Generation reported donations from the sympathetic were flooding in.
Yet most Germans don’t necessarily like the group’s tactics. A survey by Der Spiegel found 79% of respondents disagreed with Last Generation’s methods. Another poll reported although about half of those surveyed might empathise with the group’s aims – which include imposing a speed limit on German motorways and cheaper public transport – most don’t like its methods.
Less than a week after the dawn raids, researchers published yet another paper saying the Earth’s environmental boundaries had been crossed and we were probably all doomed. Yet somehow the debate about how far the kids can go when it comes to demanding a speed limit remains the most important subject.
As it is Last Generation activists may soon be getting their own back on the litigious Bavarians who commissioned the dawn raids. This summer they plan to focus on disrupting the wealthy. Bavaria is Germany’s second-richest state.
Cathrin Schaer is a freelance journalist living in Berlin.
