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Climate activist Neubauer during a demo in front of the Reichstag in Berlin
Photo: Dominik Butzmann / photothek / IMAGO
The climate activist Luisa Neubauer has complained about threats and hostility against herself and other civil society actors. "I don't want to accept this constant threat situation, the death threats, the stalking, the rape fantasies in mailboxes as normality in my life," said the spokeswoman for the climate movement Fridays for Future to the "Tagesspiegel". The threat situation and security measures made their activism “so much more complex, more strenuous.” She also criticized the federal government's lack of action to promote a change to a climate-friendly economy.
She told the “Tagesspiegel” that there was broad social support for political engagement. Political protest is also a sign of a healthy democracy. »But if parts of this civil society cannot do their work because the hatred, the violence, the fear is becoming too great - then should that be a private problem? “I won’t go along with that,” Neubauer continued.
Every time a politician publicly defames climate activists, it multiplies the hatred of the student and increases the threat to all climate activists. The hatred against activists is not a “private problem” but “a social grievance.”
Neubauer also criticized the federal government's policy. They are not doing enough to enable the “transformation towards a climate-friendly economy”. A climate-friendly restructuring of the industry is also the responsibility of the federal government. Instead, politicians downplay the climate crisis and play climate protection and social problems off against each other. Neubauer advocated introducing climate money because this could create trust that climate policy could be binding.
lpz/AFP