German police raid homes of climate activists – POLITICO

BERLIN — German police raided homes early Wednesday morning belonging to members of the so-called Last Generation climate activist group across the country, according to local authorities.

Authorities are investigating allegations that a total of seven defendants, aged 22 to 38, formed and supported a criminal organization, according to a statement from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, which is responsible for the affair.

Investigators accuse the defendants of having collected a total of 1.4 million euros through a fundraising campaign, which the Last Generation would have mainly used to commit crimes. According to the statement, the purpose of the searches was to uncover information about the group’s structure and funding.

Two of the suspects are said to have planned criminal acts themselves, as they are accused of trying to sabotage an oil pipeline from Trieste in Italy to Ingolstadt in Germany last April.

Climate activists reacted by writing on Twitter, “Looting Lobbying Structures and Seizing Government Funds for Fossil Fuels – When? Nationwide Raid. # Completely crazy.

In doing so, they used the language of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who on Monday called the latest generation’s controversial actions “completely crazy”.

According to the authorities, the procedure was initiated “following numerous criminal complaints received from the public since mid-2022”.

Authorities raided 15 properties across Germany. In addition to Bavaria, research was carried out in Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein. The authorities seized one property and two seized accounts.

A spokesperson for the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office told POLITICO that authorities also took the activists’ website offline.