Shortly before the newly announced blockade actions in Berlin, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) accused the climate group Last Generation of a lack of willingness to talk. “This group has never sought a dialogue with me,” said the FDP politician to the news portal “The Pioneer” (Wednesday). “But we should treat each other with respect and consider that the other side could also be right.”
He would like good proposals to be worked out together, said Wissing, adding: “A transport policy that divides this society and leads to extremists moving into parliament, that would not be good policy.”
On Tuesday, the last generation announced that they wanted to shut down Berlin indefinitely with hundreds of activists in order to push through their demands for a radical change in the climate. From Wednesday onwards, disruptions and blockades are planned in the government district, and then throughout the capital from Monday, the group said.
A set of suggestions
Wissing further told the “Pioneer” that the immediate climate protection program agreed in the coalition agreement should go into the cabinet at the beginning of May. “All areas, including transport, must make their contribution”. Together with Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), he had “made a whole series of proposals that are included in the draft”. The fact that the program has not yet been presented to the public is related to “the fact that we have not yet seen any progress in amending the climate protection law”.
The last generation was founded in 2021 after a hunger strike and has been blocking traffic again and again since the beginning of 2022. Most of the time, participants get stuck. The focus of their criticism is always Wissing. At the beginning of March, the activists protested against the federal government’s transport policy in front of the Federal Ministry of Transport in Berlin and sprayed the building with water from a fire truck to give Wissing “a cold shower”. The activists complained that he was trampling on the law and demonstrably breaking the Climate Protection Act.
