The Last Generation activist group demonstrated again on Saturday with road blockades in several places in Germany in favour of more action on climate change, but unlike previous actions, the participants did not glue themselves to the ground.
Some 130 participants blocked a busy bridge linking Berlin’s Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg districts, the Warschauer Brücke, at midday, police reports said. They repeatedly stood and sat down in both lanes of the road.
In the Bavarian cities of Munich and Regensburg, the police counted 120 and 150 demonstrators respectively at reported and unreported gatherings. There were no major traffic problems in Munich, according to the local police.
Not far from the terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen, 30 activists obstructed traffic on an access road to the Sassnitz ferry harbour, according to the police.
The police initially allowed the group to continue, but ended the action after several hours. The majority of the participants were carried off the road by officers, a police spokeswoman told dpa. Some of the group had left the road voluntarily.
A spokesman for the Last Generation had previously said that the protesters wanted to stay longer, possibly until Sunday. The liquefied natural gas terminal was “the height of fossil fuel madness,” he said.
There were also demonstrations in the south-west of the country, in the cities of Freiburg and Karlsruhe, and at Stuttgart airport. The police there spoke of a peaceful protest.
In the north-western city of Bremen, around 100 climate activists occupied a road junction in the city centre.
Further blockades were planned in the cities of Cologne in the west and Leipzig in the east of the country.
Last Generation demands radical climate action, including the complete renunciation of coal, oil and gas. The group has been organizing street blockades since the beginning of 2022, with participants gluing themselves to road surfaces.
However, it recently announced that it would change its strategy and refrain from glue protests in future. It called for “disobedient rallies” throughout Germany.