BERLIN — A German authorities spokesperson on Friday rejected the notion that feedback by Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticizing local weather activists may need prompted raids in opposition to them this week.
Police on Wednesday searched greater than a dozen properties throughout Germany linked to the group Last Generation, seizing property as a part of a probe into its funds. Prosecutors in Munich stated they’re investigating whether or not the group constitutes a felony group after its repeated street blockades and different protests drew quite a few complaints from the general public.
Days earlier than the raids, Scholz stated he thought it was “ completely nutty to somehow stick yourself to a painting or on the street.”
Members of Last Generation have hit again, describing the raids as a blow to democracy and accusing Scholz of belittling younger folks’s fears about international warming.
Scholz’s spokesperson, Wolfgang Buechner, stated he didn’t know whether or not the chancellor had advance information of the raids however that it will be uncommon if that have been the case.
Asked whether or not prosecutors in Bavaria might have taken Scholz’s feedback as a sign to crack down on the group, Buechner strongly rejected the thought.
“It has to be possible for the German chancellor to answer a question about what he thinks of the protests in a plain-spoken way,” he stated. “I think the chancellor did this in an appropriate way.”
Buechner stated the German authorities stays dedicated to tackling local weather change and protesters should abide by the regulation.
A United Nations spokesperson stated Thursday that whereas governments have an obligation to uphold the regulation, “people also have a fundamental right to demonstrate peacefully to have their voices heard.”
“And it is clear that a lot of the progress that we have seen on awareness on climate change and positive movement on climate change is due to the fact that people have been demonstrating peacefully throughout the world,” Stéphane Dujarric instructed reporters in New York.
“Climate advocates – led by the moral voice of young people – have kept the agenda moving through the darkest of days. They must be protected, and we need them now more than ever,” he instructed German information company dpa.
Last Generation and different teams have stated they plan additional protests in Germany over the approaching days.
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