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In ageing Germany, the young get desperate over climate

Published 09/24/2021, 09:27 AM
Updated 09/24/2021, 06:03 PM
© Reuters. People take part in the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang

© Reuters. People take part in the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang

BERLIN (Reuters) - In one of the world's most aged countries, some young people are resorting to drastic measures to voice their frustration at politicians' failure to tackle climate change.

Outside Germany's parliament, a group of activists have been on hunger strike since Aug. 30, bringing their demands for more action on climate change in person to the three candidates to succeed Angela Merkel.

Now, two days before the election that will bring her time in office to a close, two of the activists have stepped up their campaign, announcing that they will no longer even drink water until their demands are heard.

"We've tried everything," said Klara Hinrichs, spokesperson for the two remaining hunger strikers. "Thousands of us were on the street with Fridays for Future. We started petitions. I chained myself to the transport ministry."

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was in the German capital on Friday as part of a Fridays for Future global climate protest.

The three chancellor candidates, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats, conservative Armin Laschet and Green Annalena Baerbock have not gone to see the hunger strikers, urging them to drop their strike and preserve themselves for future battles.

But while the other hunger strikers have now dropped their campaign, Henning Jeschke, now wheelchair-bound and very gaunt, and Lea Bonasera have vowed not to drink until Olaf Scholz, leading in the polls, either comes to them or declares there is a climate emergency.

"To the activists in hunger strike I say: I will stick to the agreement and speak to them after the election," Scholz wrote on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) on Friday. "But now they must save their own lives and stop."

Germany has long been in the vanguard of climate activism, giving birth to the first Green Party to win national prominence, and all parties are committed to action on climate change.

But its population also has the oldest median age in the European Union, and successive elections have revealed a gulf between the young, most exposed to the long-term impact of rising temperatures, and the old for whom climate change is one of many competing worries.

After a recent television debate, polls found that more than half those aged 18-34 thought Baerbock, the Green candidate, had won, compared to a fifth of older people, who were far more convinced by the SPD's and conservatives' candidates.

"The intergenerational pact has been broken," reads the poster with which the seven original hunger strikers announced their campaign.

© Reuters. People take part in the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2021. The banner reads

But Baerbock, at 40 the youngest of the three candidates for chancellor, also sided with Scholz.

"Don't throw your lives away," she told them via newspaper Die Welt. "Society needs you."

Latest comments

LOL....Russia will teach Europe a vauluable lesson in Engery ...grab some popcorn and sit back and watch the chaos unfold. Climate change .. lol mean while in Canada 6 months of harsh winters...
All the worst ideas concieved of by mankind aince the 19th century have come from Europe.
👍
if they're so worried about climate issues they should ask the govt what's the purpose of those planes making fake clouds 24/7 worldwide for the last 30yrs.
lol
Idiocracy has arrived!
Old people/Young people : We will see YOUR REFERENDUM at the pump / or not. Tic-toc.
socialists without jobs and nothing better to do. 😂
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