Activists from the Fridays for Future climate group are gathering again in several German cities. Their goal: stop what they see as a thoughtless road expansion. In Berlin, the protest is primarily directed against the outdated concept of the A100 and against Transport Minister Wissing.
Activists from the climate movement Fridays for Future have protested in numerous German cities against the construction and expansion of motorways. More roads meant more traffic and thus more emissions of climate-damaging gases, the group justified their demonstrations with this focus. There were campaigns in Berlin, Bonn, Cologne, Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Stuttgart and Freiburg, among others.
In the capital, the protest of around 40 participants was aimed in particular at the expansion of the A100 city motorway. The project is controversial in Berlin politics, environmentalists are against it, the Federal Ministry of Transport wants to continue building the A100. The climate activist Luisa Neubauer said at a rally within sight of the construction site: "The concept for the A100 in Berlin comes from the 1950s. There was a time when you could sell blind asphalting as modern transport policy. Those times are over, happily."
In the "Tagesspiegel" Neubauer had also criticized Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing. "There is no minister in Germany who is torpedoing his climate goals like Transport Minister Volker Wissing," she said. Germany is already full of autobahns. "Now we need an about-face, otherwise we can give up on the climate targets," warned Neubauer.
According to the police, around 50 demonstrators gathered in Bonn in front of the Federal Ministry of Transport's headquarters there. Like Neubauer in Berlin, they held up red cards on which the demand "No new autobahns" could be read. In Hamburg, supporters of Fridays for Future painted a huge stop sign on Hamburg's Jungfernstieg to demonstrate against the further expansion of the Autobahn. According to the police, around 100 climate protectors demonstrated against new autobahns in Stuttgart and Freiburg.
