The German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has defended the need to toughen sanctions up to prison sentences for the protest actions of environmental and climate change activists.
In recent weeks, works of art in museums in Berlin, London, Rome, Amsterdam or Madrid have been attacked with tomato soup, mashed potatoes, mashed peas or fake blood, and in Germany the actions of Letzte Generation (Last Generation) sticking to the road for traffic are common.
The CDU expects to present a legislative initiative in the Bundestag next week, reports the newspaper ‘Bild am Sonntag’. The text provides for short prison sentences for anyone who intentionally cuts off traffic or obstructs the transit of emergency service vehicles, firefighters or police.
It also provides for the possibility of preventive arrests if there is a risk of recidivism and harsher penalties for damage or destruction of cultural property, so far punishable by a fine.
Activists «should not have a license to commit crimes,» argued the CDU spokesman in Parliament, Alexander Dobrindt, in statements to the ‘Bild am Sonntag’. Such harsher sentences could help «counteract further radicalization of this climate movement and serve as an example to imitators.»
One of the most criticized incidents is where a female cyclist died on Thursday after being hit by a truck in Berlin. The ambulance was unable to get past a blockade by climate activists on its way to the scene of the accident, although medical sources warn that it could not have done much for her life even without the blockade.
In Berlin alone there are 700 proceedings open against climate activists and criminal charges have been brought against two of them for participating in the blockade on a charge of denial of aid.
