Berlin activists glue themselves to roads causing ‘massive’ disruption across the city

Police remove an activist from the road near Berlin's Ernst-Reuter-Platz central place.
Police remove an activist from the road near Berlin's Ernst-Reuter-Platz central place. Copyright Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP
Copyright Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP
By Euronews Green with Reuters
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The group said it wanted the federal government to submit a detailed plan on how Germany can meet a target of limiting temperature increases to 1.5 Celsius.

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Scores of climate activists glued themselves to roads across Berlin, blocking rush-hour traffic and enraging some drivers on Monday 24 April.

Passersby shouted at the protesters from the "Letzte Generation" (Last Generation) group who stuck their hands to the tarmac and sat in rows across busy intersections in a bid to press the government to do more against climate change.

The group glued themselves to street surfaces across Berlin including on the busy A100 motorway. The city's transport information network said on Twitter that the action caused "massive traffic disruptions". 

One man ran at a line of campaigners before he was pushed over by police, then helped to his feet and told to calm down.

CHRISTIAN MANG/REUTERS
Police officers detain an activist of the "Letzte Generation" (Last Generation) as they block a highway.CHRISTIAN MANG/REUTERS

A video shared by the campaign group on Twitter showed another man dragging two activists, one of them apparently by her ponytail, to the side of a road. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of that footage or when or where it was taken.

"This is just unbelievable, does everyone have to suffer because of them ... It's chaos everywhere, the whole city is in chaos, just lock them up," said one passerby called Ali as he watched police carrying protesters off the A100 highway.

What does Last Generation want from the Berlin government?

The group said it wanted the federal government to submit a detailed plan on how Germany can meet a target of limiting temperature increases to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"We no longer accept that the government has no plan to stop the destruction of our livelihoods. We're resisting now," Last Generation activist Carla Rochelin said in an emailed statement.

Police said they detained around 200 people in 35 locations across the capital. Officers watched over protest sites and used swabs to free the activists' palms from the tarmac.

TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP
Police use a drill and other tools to remove the glued hand of an activist.TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP

Recently mayors of other German cities including Hannover and Marburg have reached agreements with Last Generation to stop the group from blocking roads with its protests. 

Transport Minister Volker Wissing, also a member of the Liberal Party, is due to meet activists from "Letzte Generation" on 2 May, according to AFP. 

Berlin's failed climate neutrality referendum

The protests come less than a month after campaigners failed to get enough votes in a referendum that would have forced the city administration to bring in measures to be climate neutral by 2030.

The proposal would have seen the current goal move forward from 2045 by 15 years. ‘Klimaneustart Berlin’ or Climate Reset Berlin initiated the referendum with support from local environmental groups, green search engine Ecosia and Fridays for Future. 

But it failed to meet the required turnout of 25 per cent of eligible voters that it needed to be successful.

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