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Castle Festival with a memorable premiere: An activist glued herself to part of the stage at the beginning of the opera »Magic Flute«
Photo: Armin Weigel / dpa
Climate activists from the group Letzte Generation interrupted the premiere performance of the Regensburg Castle Festival on Friday evening. In the meantime, an activist glued herself to a part of the stage, said a spokesman for the Upper Palatinate police headquarters. "It's not stuck to it anymore." Three other people were stopped by security on their way to the stage.
According to the Last Generation, the activist, who stuck herself, addressed the audience with a speech. "The climate catastrophe needs the big stage, because it is the greatest threat to us humans, to our society, to our democracy," the group said in a statement.
Whether the performance of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" continued after that, the police could not say at first.
Protest against the hostess of the festival
Even the beginning of the castle festival had been accompanied by a protest: About 300 people had demonstrated in front of Thurn and Taxis Castle – among other things against controversial statements by the lady of the house, Gloria Princess of Thurn and Taxis, for example on the subject of homosexuality. The Regensburg lady of the castle, a frequent guest on the YouTube opinion channel of ex-"Bild" editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt, polarizes again and again with statements between arch-conservative and far right. For example, her position on corporal punishment for children, which she considers a "normal pedagogical tool", caused outrage.
Nationwide actions of climate activists
Nationwide, the activists organized a number of sit-ins throughout Germany this Friday – here is an overview:
In Nuremberg, a blockade of the Autobahn 73 caused a traffic jam in which a motorist was injured. According to police, the 31-year-old was apparently inattentive and had seen the trailer of a truck too late. In the Franconian city, demonstrators blocked traffic at three locations. The activists are now being investigated for coercion, police said.
In Potsdam, activists glued themselves to a bridge.
There were also sit-ins in Dresden and Leipzig – both were stopped by the police.
In Munich, eight activists paralyzed traffic in the city center for about two hours in the morning.
During a road blockade in Bottrop, an 18-year-old activist is said to have injured herself slightly in the morning. According to her own statements, because she was pulled off the street by a woman by her hair.
In Berlin, among other things, more than a dozen activists protested at the roundabout around the Victory Column. Several people glued themselves to the roadway there.
In Braunschweig, activists blocked a street in the city center during rush hour. Criticism of this came, for example, from the Lower Saxony state government. The action harms climate protection, said a spokeswoman.
According to the group, the reason for the protest was the "breach of the climate protection law by the government". According to the Last Generation, spokeswoman Carla Hinrichs confronted Chancellor Scholz in Berlin on the street with the fact that the government was breaking the climate protection law. A video of the confrontation was shared by the climate protection group afterwards.
In it, Scholz defended the government's climate protection policy. Germany will be "CO₂-neutral" in 2040, which is a "great burden" as the "fourth largest economy in the world".
oka/dpa