The Union calls for tougher punishment for climate activists who stick to the streets or throw porridge or soup at works of art in museums.

The Bundestag lively debated a corresponding motion by the opposition on Thursday.

One reason for the considerations was the death of a cyclist in an accident with a concrete mixer.

According to the Berlin fire brigade, the victim could not be helped comprehensively because climate activists of the "last generation" blocked roads at the same time and thus blocked the way for rescue vehicles.

The activists denied any responsibility for this and continued their blockade actions.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Under the heading "Stride blockers and museum rioters must be punished more severely", the CDU and CSU are calling for stricter criminal law, including for road blockades and attacks on art objects.

The penalty for the offense "dangerous intervention in road traffic" (§315 StGB) is to be increased from three months to up to five years.

The right to demonstrate is not a "carte blanche" for damage to property and dangerous actions, said the CDU right-wing politician Günter Krings.

A “spiral of radicalization” is to be feared.

Union: "An end, no matter how good, cannot justify all means"

The Union also does not want to accept that museums are being turned into high-security zones with meticulous identity checks because of the attacks.

"No matter how good an end, all means cannot justify," says Krings.

In addition, "perpetrators who block a public road and accept that the police, fire brigade and rescue services are prevented from performing their duties will be punished with imprisonment between three months and five years in the future."

Green politician Irena Mihalic said that protests should be creative and provocative, but shouldn't overstep the bounds of the law.

The "Last Generation" movement is doing climate protection a "disservice" with their dangerous actions, they are "completely unacceptable".

The Union's request is wrong, it defames the entire climate movement.

The CSU politician Alexander Dobrindt spoke of a "climate RAF", which was an "outrageous trivialization" of the left-wing terrorist Red Army Faction" for which Dobrindt should be "absolutely ashamed".

Protests that endanger people's life and limb are unacceptable, but so are the Union's "embarrassing" proposals.

SPD: "Populist nonsense"

Dobrindt contradicted Mihalic, he only said that the formation of a climate RAF had to be prevented.

Mihalic said the comparison between road blockades and the murder of Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen was "intolerable".

The left-wing politician Clara Bünger accused the Union of wanting "the greatest possible criminalization of dissidents who are on the left".

This is a serious threat to democracy.

"The green RAF is in the making," said AfD MP Thomas Seitz, while his colleague Stephan Brandtner spoke of "climate terror in its purest form."

The SPD right-wing politician Sebastian Fiedler rejected the Union's request, but he recalled an event on environmental crime in the Bundestag, at which activists of the group mentioned paradoxically torpedoed the hearing by triggering the fire alarm system.

This is a "completely misguided energy".

The threats are real, the goals are right, but "the means are fundamentally wrong." However, according to Fiedler, the Union's application is "populist nonsense", the Union should rather help in the fight against environmental crime worldwide.

The FDP politician Katrin Helling-Plahr accused the Union of having formulated a bad application.

There is no need for new laws, instead, the offenders should take consistent action.

The Union's proposed law was forwarded to the committees for further deliberation, with the Legal Affairs Committee taking the lead.