After the disruptive action by climate activists, operations at the capital’s airport BER are back to normal, according to a spokesman. At the same time, criticism of this form of activism by the climate protest group “Last Generation” is growing. If lives were endangered and people couldn’t go on vacation, that wasn’t acceptable, Greens chairman Omid Nouripour told the Welt television station.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann campaigned for harsh penalties for such actions. “I’m for the full severity of the law,” wrote the FDP politician on Twitter. At the same time, however, he made it clear that the courts decide on penalties and not politics.
Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey called the action “completely unacceptable”. “I have no understanding or tolerance for such actions. It is a punishable offense to disrupt flight operations, impair air traffic and endanger people,” said the SPD politician to the “Tagesspiegel”. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser spoke of a “renewed escalation”. “These actions destroy important social acceptance for the fight against climate change,” said the SPD politician. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing described the group’s actions as “more and more unscrupulous”.
“Climate protection must remain within the law”
“A lot is actually exaggerated,” said the Green Party chairman Nouripour on the broadcaster Welt about the actions. He can understand everyone who is “hyperannoyed” by it. The special representative for international climate policy at the Federal Foreign Office, Jennifer Lee Morgan, told the “Berliner Morgenpost”: “We need the commitment of young people and civil society. But any commitment to climate protection must remain within the framework of the laws of our democracy.” Climate protest should not have any negative consequences for other people.
Members of the “Last Generation” group paralyzed operations at BER in Schönefeld on Thursday. The activists streamed the action live on Twitter. There you could see them snapping through a fence shortly after 4:00 p.m. and entering the airport area. Activists were also seen gluing themselves to the ground and others riding bicycles. Operations on the runways have been stopped in the meantime. According to the airport, five starts had to be cancelled. 15 planned landings were therefore diverted to Leipzig and Dresden.
Apparently, this also affected North Rhine-Westphalia’s building minister, Ina Scharrenbach (CDU), who wrote on Twitter: “Dear fellow building ministers, I would have liked to have discussed with you tonight how we can further strengthen sustainable building. . at the
Action of the climate demonstrators “highly dangerous and high-risk”
The airport company announced that it would review the security concept at the capital’s BER airport. “We’re thinking along with the police, who also have the task of securing the flight operations areas,” said airport spokesman Hannes Hönemann on Friday on RBB Inforadio. If there are ways to make the fence around the company premises even more stable, “then we will of course do it,” said Hönemann. He called the actions of the climate demonstrators “highly dangerous and high-risk”.
The police took several people into custody after the action. The police headquarters in Brandenburg announced on request that the climate activists would be charged with dangerous interference in air traffic, trespassing and property damage. The authority wanted to give more details on Friday, such as the number of people involved. According to the “Last Generation”, six people were involved in the campaign. All were taken into custody. Five were released during the night, one demonstrator was still in police custody, a spokeswoman said on Friday morning.
According to the operators, there were no additional failures or delays at BER on Friday morning that could be attributed to the action. However, some passengers who could not fly Thursday could only take off on Friday.
Members of the “Last Generation” have repeatedly blocked road traffic in recent weeks, stuck themselves to paintings in museums and this week in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie at a conductor’s podium. Their goal is to draw public attention to the consequences of climate change and to call on politicians to take action.
