Police raids were carried out across Germany against the far-left climate radical group the “Last Generation”, which is now under investigation for allegedly forming a “criminal organisation”.
On Tuesday, the Neuruppin Public Prosecutor’s Office in Brandenberg announced that it has begun investigating the Letzte Generation (Last Generation) green activist group for potentially being a criminal organisation in response to months of activist actions against an oil refinery earlier this year.
The announcement of a criminal investigation came in concert with a series of police raids on eleven locations throughout Germany believed to be tied to the group, which has used similar tactics to groups like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, like glueing themselves to motorways and vandalising prominent paintings to warn against the allegedly impending climate armageddon.
In comments provided to Der Speigel, Chief Prosecutor Cyrill Klement said that the Last Generation is being investigated on “suspicion of the formation or support of a criminal organisation, disruption of public companies, trespassing and coercion,” and that so far a “low, double-digit number of people” are under investigation.
The investigation centres around attacks on the PCK Schwedt oil refinery on the German border with Poland between April and May of this year, in which the green radicals repeatedly turned off emergency valves on a pipeline from Rostock, causing disruptions to the supply of energy in the already power-strapped nation.
However, the investigation will apparently not extend to the group’s actions in shutting down roads, which in one instance saw a woman left brain dead after her ambulance was delayed on its way to a hospital, or the repeated attacks on famous works of art, such as Claude Monet’s “Les Meules” which they threw mashed potatoes upon in October.
In a post on Twitter, the Last Generation confirmed the police raids on 11 properties, saying that “electronic devices, such as laptops and mobile phones, were confiscated, as well as posters.”
Last Generation spokeswoman Carla Hinrichs, who said that her home was among those searched, added: “And now? Yes, it’s scary when the police is going through your closet. But do you seriously think we’re going to stop now?”.
The green-extreme collective has shown no signs of slowing down, with members of the group disrupting air travel from the Munich airport last week after they glued their hands to the tarmac of runways to protest against the environmental impact of aeroplanes.