The "Last Generation" blocked BER on Thursday. The BER! We should give them respect: apparently environmental radicals have a lot more humor than we thought.
If all else fails, we'll do it with the flags! Sometimes there is deep truth in advertising. Quite a few flags were waved this week, not to say hung in the wind. Many people crowded onto the public stage with their concerns, symbols and lust for honor: football millionaires, a Federal Minister of the Interior and an organization that deserves the title of terrorist organization even better than the "last generation" - only that FIFA has had more viewers so far.
It was time for Braveheart feelings. Anyone could really feel like William Wallace, even if they didn't have a blue complexion on their face: Anyone who watches the World Cup, although "the clouds" are against it. If you don't watch the World Cup, even though it's the "soccer dream". Anyone who wants to wear an armband, unless you're not allowed to. Who covers his mouth in protest and then loses in football. Even Interior Minister Nancy Faeser received applause - a sure sign that the world has gone haywire.
Flags instead of bargaining, that was the case in Qatar from the start. It has not only been known since November 2022 how the rights of homosexuals are there. But people wanted to go there. The failures of the past force us to flag in the present - and that brings us to climate policy.
The climate activists are also fed up with flags. As expected, the climate summit fell short of expectations, especially from a green point of view. The EU Commission has even created regulations for greenwashing, the eco flag waving of many companies. One could say: there has never been more flag-confidence than in the 2020s.
Now activists from the "Last Generation" have cut open a fence at BER and stuck themselves to the site. This is actually a new level of escalation: Smearing paintings protected by glass was still a brooding task for legal demarcations - with a cut fence there is no room for discussion. Reports were filed for dangerous interference in air traffic, trespassing and property damage. The claims for damages should be priced in.
Similar to how Elon Musk "votes" Donald Trump's return to Twitter and amnesties for blocked users, the "last generation" on the platform is asking where they should commit crimes next: to each their own horde.
Escalation is only a matter of time: the debate about motorists' right of self-defence is simmering. German law allows for violent action when one person violates the rights of another. The media lawyer Ralf Höcker, who likes to present himself as a journalist whip, said in a tweet: "Drivers are allowed
His tweet was deleted from Twitter - and even tweets that only echo that tweet disappear. The platform does not allow violent stimuli. Anything that can lead to violence in the stimulus hell, which tends to be viral, is prohibited - the platforms have been extremely thin-skinned, especially since the storming of the Capitol.
Höcker is absolutely right: There is a right of self-defense and blocked drivers could exercise that. However, it is not quite as general when the police are already present. However, the self-defence simply no longer looks as robust as in the famous "cherry tree case" of the Reich Court. Back in 1920, the judges thought it was okay for a wheelchair user to shoot at cherry thieves with a hunting rifle. Those were tougher times. Today one would see it differently and mumble something about "appropriateness".
The German desire for formalization would now like to see a result, but the law is the last, not the first, means of resolving conflicts. You can have a right of self-defense and still refrain from ripping open the hands of protesters. For example, because no one can be interested in street battles just because two people interpret the right of self-defence differently.
In fact, despite all the encouragement for their goals, the climate activists have long since lost public support. Democracies can certainly opt for premature demise, whether out of phlegm, greed or ignorance. But the culture-battle-drunk Union manages with its anti-statements to overtake the radicalism of the "last generation" precisely when they say goodbye to civil discourse with crimes. "Hello Minister of Justice! Hello Minister of the Interior!" exclaimed former Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) on Friday, strangely cheerful, "Just lock these climate criminals away!"
"Just lock it away", so, so. This is reminiscent of 1998: "Lock away - forever" was a quip by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, but that was reserved for sex offenders at the time. Previously, Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) had chosen a tone similar to Scheuer's when he painted the emergence of a "Climate RAF" on the wall. And CDU man Jens Spahn went one better: "It all sounds like bullying, but in the end it's a planned economy that, in extreme cases, leads to a climate dictatorship," he said at a party with the Junge Union.
This new, anti-woke Union would perhaps hurt the "Last Generation" the most if they shut their mouths for a while.
