An American-funded climate group in Germany posted a video of a car dragging two of their protestors forward who were blocking a road in Munich, as the controversial group continues its campaign of disruptive climate action.
The clip, posted to X on Monday, showed several protestors from the Letzte Generation (“Last Generation”) activist group blocking a road. Two protestors jumped on the hood of a car that tried to make its way through, but the driver cautiously kept moving.
“Keep going! No matter how bleak the forecast is for the future—or what’s on your hood,” the post by Letzte Generation read.
The activist group has received increasing public disapproval in recent years for its approach of “disruptive action.”
In 2022, the group staged more than 80 so-called protests, most of which involved blocking public roads and highways, and even gluing themselves to the road so they could not be easily moved by police.
In August of last year, the group began attacking expensive works of art held in museums, and threw soup and mashed potatoes on them.
The group has been active for several years. In December 2022, members of Letzte Generation made their way onto the runway of Berlin Airport.
After cutting a hole in a fence, the activists used resin to glue themselves to the runway at around 4 p.m., causing many flights to be delayed. Emergency responders had to remove part of the tarmac to loosen the protestors from the runway.
The participants were later charged with dangerous interference in air traffic, trespassing, and property damage.
“We are the last generation who still has a chance to stop the collapse of our society. Faced with this reality, we unabashedly accept high fines, criminal charges, and imprisonment,” the group’s website read.
Letzte Generation is funded by the Climate Emergency Fund (CEF), a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to “disruptive nonviolent activism around the world.”
The CEF was founded in 2019 by filmmaker Rory Kennedy and Getty family heir Aileen Getty. The CEF claims to have “trained” 30,000 climate activists and funded 112 “brave, ultra-ambitious” climate activist groups since its inception.
“We support disruptive climate activism because we believe it is the fastest way to create transformative change,” the CEF says on its website.
CEF beneficiary Letzte Generation, however, has mostly been reaping condemnation and disapproval, both from the political sphere as well as from the general public.
Polls showed that 80 percent of Germans disapproved of the group’s actions.
“Our democracy does not work in this way, achieving goals in the name of a good cause by any and every means,” First Parliamentary Secretary Katja Mast commented on the group’s airport escapade.
“Letzte Generation aren’t protecting the climate, they’re engaged in criminal activity,” Minister of Digital Affairs and Transport of Germany Volker Wissing said.
Following numerous criminal complaints from the population, the group in April spray-painted several stores in Berlin. Authorities then raided a total of 15 homes of Last Generation activists across Germany in May.
No arrests were made but an investigation was opened into seven members of the group on suspicion of forming a criminal organization.
Two of the suspects are also suspected of attempting to sabotage an oil pipeline in April 2022.
In June, members of the group spray-painted two yachts in the port of Neustadt.
U.S.-based CEF did not immediately reply to comment on the controversy surrounding Letzte Generation.
