Wiesbaden (dpa / lhe) - Hesse's Minister of Justice Roman Poseck (CDU) advocates consistent action in the case of crimes committed by climate activists. "Blockades that affect countless people and cause life-threatening dangers due to the blockage of rescue routes must not be accepted," Poseck said on Monday in Wiesbaden. "The actions of the climate activists "last generation" have reached a dimension that requires consistent action by the state."
For this purpose, offenses ranging from coercion to resistance against emergency services to, under certain circumstances, terrorist offenses are available. "In view of the new phenomenon with further potential for radicalization, it is also right and necessary to discuss tightening the penalties," emphasized the Minister of Justice. The special dangers caused by the new type of actions could be countered more precisely by tightening the penalties.
Personally, he could imagine an extension of the penal norm of the paragraph that regulates dangerous interventions in road traffic, Poseck explained. In this way, sentence extensions could be created that cover coercion at the expense of a large number of people or at least careless blockages of escape routes. The aim of the tightening of penalties must be to make the deterrent effect of criminal law clearer.
The protest group "Last Generation" had blocked streets almost every day in the past few weeks. Since a serious accident recently in Berlin, as a result of which a cyclist died, the group has come under increasing criticism. According to the fire department, the arrival of a special vehicle to rescue the injured was delayed due to a traffic jam that is said to have been triggered by an action by the "last generation". However, the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported, citing an application note, that the emergency doctor who had been deployed had already decided not to use a special vehicle to rescue the woman.
Numerous politicians are calling for tougher action against the blockers, and the activists have been attacked on the Internet.
