Last generation: Raids against climate glue completely covered

They make the blood of drivers boil when they are stuck in traffic. And while some motorists reacted to the climate activists with violent vigilantism, the state is now investigating the suspicion of forming a criminal organization (§129 StGB). That too is an overreaction. Because the “last generation” was not founded to commit crimes, but to point out the dramatically progressing climate change with civil disobedience.

Of course, the activists calculate that they will also come into conflict with the criminal law. Normally, this is punished at best as coercion or violation of the assembly law – usually with a fine. Even handing out prison sentences without parole to activists whose “crime” it was to have blocked a road was disproportionate to the crime. The investigators from Munich, who initiated the nationwide raids against the “Last Generation”, are now counting on a further (legal) escalation.

The accusation is intended to deter supporters and donors

Those who use the accusation of “forming a criminal organization” in this way are less concerned with defending the community than with criminalizing and intimidating an unwelcome protest movement. It is intended to deter supporters and donors and turns political activists into enemies of the state. This is particularly grotesque here, because exactly the climate protection that the activists are demanding so vehemently is, after all, a national goal.

However, the radical approach of criminal prosecutors has an inglorious tradition in this country. Regardless of whether it was the protests around Hamburger Hafenstraße, the disputes over the planned reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf or the disputes over a nuclear repository in Wendland: In all social conflicts, the rule of law has used one of its heaviest legal weapons and because of the formation or support of a criminal Association investigation initiated.

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And if that wasn’t enough from a legal point of view, the anti-terror paragraph was tried – formation or support of a terrorist organization (§129a). Even if nothing remains of the martial accusations at the end of such investigations, it opens the door for extensive state action – from telephone tapping to spying on those affected. This quickly has to do with legal arbitrariness.