by Riham Alkousaa
BERLIN, May 24 (Reuters) – Members of the Last Generation environmental movement were raided in Germany on Wednesday as part of an investigation into “forming or supporting a criminal organisation”, German police said.
The German collective (Letzte Generation) has distinguished itself in recent months by spectacular actions such as the blocking of roads by activists with their hands glued to the asphalt to denounce the policy of the government of Olaf Scholz in the face of climate change.
The prosecution is investigating seven suspects between the ages of 22 and 38, police said, adding that no arrests have been made so far.
“At the current stage of the procedure, we have confirmed the facts of criminal association,” said Klaus Ruhland, spokesman for the Munich public prosecutor’s office. Evidence from the searches, conducted at 15 locations, will be reviewed over the coming weeks, he said.
The environmental movement reacted by declaring that all its activities were transparent and non-criminal, that its militants displayed their faces and names during their actions, announced in advance.
“Do we have to start by suffering a drought in Germany, suffering from food shortages (…) before understanding that Last generation is (…) not criminal?” said Aimee Van Baalen, spokesperson for the collective, to reporters in Berlin.
The latter urged all Germans to join new collective demonstrations scheduled for May 31 to demand emergency measures against climate change.
“We must continue to resist,” she said.
Several other German environmental movements have criticized these searches, believing that they violate the freedom to demonstrate, enshrined in the Constitution.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said legitimate protests stop when criminal offenses are committed.
According to the police, the seven suspects under investigation are suspected of having raised funds to finance new crimes, collecting at least 1.4 million euros in donations. Two of them are suspected of sabotaging the Trieste-Ingolstadt transalpine pipeline in April 2022, she said. (With Anneli Palmen, Martin Schlicht, French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Nicolas Delame)
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