German climate activists returned to the streets on Friday and reported a surge in public donations despite having their bank accounts shut down amid a police crackdown.
Demonstrators marched through Stuttgart with signs saying “the climate crisis can’t be locked up” and branding their treatment as a criminal group “totally loopy” – a phrase used by Chancellor Olaf Scholz about protesters’ tactics.
The group, which calls itself the Last Generation, has divided opinion in Germany, with members gluing themselves to roads and staging acts of public vandalism to demand more urgent climate action.
Protesters in Britain, France and elsewhere have staged similar acts, with French police firing tear gas at activists on Friday after they attempted to block a meeting of oil company TotalEnergies.
Germany's Last Generation said it had raised more than 300,000 euros ($322,000) via an allied group after appealing for support following raids carried out by police earlier this week.
Two bank accounts were seized and an asset freeze was ordered during the raids by Bavarian police, who said members of the group were suspected of fundraising criminal activity.
Donors expressed solidarity with the Last Generation in comments on a fundraising website, with one urging protesters “not to let yourselves be intimidated”.
“It is not the Last Generation that has crossed a line, but those who organised these raids,” said another man who contributed 50 euros ($54).
Further demonstrations were planned in Berlin later this week with an Austrian branch of the Last Generation calling for protests in solidarity with German colleagues.
Mr Scholz’s government has criticised protesters' tactics but taken a cautious line on the raids, saying it was up to the judiciary to decide whether the Last Generation amounted to a criminal enterprise.
A spokesman for Mr Scholz would not be drawn on suspicions of electioneering by a right-wing Bavarian government that is up for re-election in October and whose leader has previously sought the chancellorship.
The spokesman defended Mr Scholz’s comment, made to a group of schoolchildren, that it was “totally loopy” for protesters to glue themselves to streets or paintings.
“The chancellor has repeatedly made clear that engagement for climate action must unite us as a society and not divide us,” the spokesman said on Friday.
Conservatives welcomed the raids and said the group’s actions were becoming “ever more radical”. Amnesty International joined left-wing politicians in defending acts of civil disobedience.
Asked about the raids, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said governments had a “responsibility to uphold the law and uphold security” but said people had a “fundamental right to demonstrate peacefully”.
“It is clear that a lot of the progress that we have seen on awareness on climate change and positive movement on climate change is due to the fact that people have been demonstrating peacefully throughout the world,” he said.
Prosecutors in Bavaria say their investigation is focusing on seven people aged between 22 and 38 who are said to have raised 1.4 million ($1.5 million) for the Last Generation.
Two people are also suspected of trying to sabotage an oil pipeline between Italy and Germany.
Police took over the Last Generation’s website and replaced it with a warning that any donations would “constitute illegal support of the criminal organisation”.
It was latest retracted after authorities were criticised for jumping ahead of court proceedings.
