Mr. Gauweiler, I recently spoke to the musician Leslie Mandoki, whose daughter was demonstrating against the deforestation of the Hambach Forest a few years ago and fell out of a tree.

Mandoki said that at a chance meeting they congratulated him on having brought up his daughter to be revolutionary.

Sounds like you have sympathies for the climate activists.

Timo Frasch

Political correspondent in Munich.

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In any case, they don't leave you indifferent – ​​as a father or when you're stuck in traffic.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic because of the "Last Generation"?

Last Friday in Berlin I was able to see the actors on the way into town.

There were ten boys and girls sitting there, and the powerless Berlin police stood around helplessly in droves.

If I were still politically active, I would start asking the capital question.

What would you have done during your time as Bavarian Secretary of State for the Interior?

At the time, during the blockades at the entrance to the nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf, we said that it is not compatible with the human dignity of the police officer that he has to carry away two hundredweight people like on a Kaiserstuhl.

So: Threat of immediate coercion and then a small arm lock.

Then they got up.

Today they are stuck.

I would probably divert traffic today and let the demonstrators sit for a bit.

You feel no sympathy for the young people?

I was – frankly speaking – always on the side of the well-fortified state, it would be pandering if I said otherwise here.

But then again, a feeling of understanding is not completely alien to me.

A few years ago my wife and I witnessed a beautiful "gilets jaunes" demonstration in Paris, the "yellow vests".

And we were right in the middle of it all and also demonstrating at the same time.

In the fog of tear gas on the Champs-Élysées.

Splendid!

Why join the demonstration?

Resistance, defiance and rebellion are also a part of oneself.

Critics would say: That's the fascist in you.

Other: the anarchist.

In addition to the high spirits, there is also fist-like desperation: And see that we can't change anything, that almost burns my heart.

Thinking about it is inside me, but also the anger, the "get away and sneak away".

I call this the eternal panel discussion within myself.

That doesn't exactly seem to be a strength of your party, the CSU.

There is only hit on the activists.

"Climate RAF", tougher penalties.

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Well, I am happy to defend Alexander Dobrindt, to which you are alluding here.

He's one of the very few in the Union who still has the guts to say something offensive.

It's part of the whole truth that when people start making their opinions as absolute as the climate stickers, a responsible federal politician has to say: We won't let you get away with it.

The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" recently wrote: "If people don't also do what is not allowed, but is right in their eyes, there will be no progress."

All true, but the Bavarian-bourgeois CSU was not founded as the party for suffragettes and iconoclasts.

Part of bourgeois behavior is pointing out the benefits of following rules.

For that you need good guys like we old CSUers were.

As for Mandoki: Of course you have to stand by your own daughter.

But Leslie, like all good fathers, knows how to say: Please get down from the tree.

And would you please finish your bachelor's degree.

The Christian parties refer to Jesus.

He didn't take compliance with the law that seriously either.

But Jesus also says: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's." And in Romans 13 it says that all authority comes from God.