In the dispute over radical actions for more climate protection, Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) and climate activist Carla Hinrichs have attacked each other with allegations of breaking the law.
“You have to abide by the law,” said Buschmann on the ARD program “Anne Will” on the question of whether road blockades and attacks on works of art help in the fight for the climate. The climate activist Carla Hinrichs from the group “Last Generation” replied with a view to a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court: “Our government is currently breaking our Basic Law.”
In 2021, the court ruled that the then federal government had to improve its climate protection law in order to protect the civil liberties of younger generations. Constitutional complaints from several climate protectors were partly successful.
Hinrichs: Activism is a moral duty
Buschmann and the Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) argued that even good goals should not be pursued by breaking the law. In a democracy, you don’t try to blackmail the government by continuing to commit crimes, Buschmann said. Herrmann said: “Coercion is a punishable offence, property damage is a punishable offence.” This cannot be part of a democratic decision-making process.
Hinrichs replied that she was grateful for her right to demonstrate. But: “The time window in which we can act is closing. (…) We still have two to three years to decide whether we will survive on this planet.” She argued: “We are racing into a catastrophe, it is our moral duty to exhaust all our resources.” Be prepared to go to jail for your goals if necessary, she affirmed.
Buschmann defends FDP positions
Bundestag Vice-President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) noted that the discussion was taking energy away from the actual problem – for example that the world climate summit had only brought a “non-result”. But she also agreed with the climate activist in part: “Failure to comply with the 1.5 degree path – that is unconstitutional.”
Buschmann defended that the FDP in the federal government is against a speed limit in road traffic. Basically, there is agreement on the goals with climate activists. “We only do it with technology and with innovation.” Hermann defended the comparatively low expansion of wind power in Bavaria. “We are aware that we have to move much faster there,” he said. “It has something to do with the fact that thousands of citizens in Bavaria demonstrated against wind turbines.” Now the state government is pushing ahead with the expansion of renewable energies “with great emphasis”.
