Less than two weeks after shutting down Berlin airport, German climate activists stormed the airport in Munich and disrupted the air traffic in one of Europe’s busiest transit points.
On Thursday, German media outlets said that a gang of militant activists swarmed a runway and glued themselves to the tarmac. According to reports, police and fire brigade were rushed to the scene to free the glued militants from the runway.
The climate-extremist group “Last Generation,” which operates across Europe, took responsibility for the disruptive action. “Several activists of the “Last Generation” protest movement glued themselves on a runway at Munich Airport,” German state TV channel Tagesschau reported. “This led to the closure of the northern runway for about 45 minutes,” the broadcaster added.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported the details of the incident:
According to Munich Airport, one of the airport’s two runways has been shut down due to a climate protest. The activists have glued themselves to the runway north of the airport, an airport spokesperson said. The disruption in air traffic is to be expected.The police went on a large-scale operation. “The activists are currently being removed [from the runway] by the police and taken into custody, ” the Upper Bavaria North police headquarters said.Meanwhile, the police have disbanded the gathering, according to their own statement, and the disruption lasted less than an hour. The last person glued up [to the tarmac] was taken into custody of the airport police and fire brigade at 11:09 a.m. [Translated by the author]
Thursday’s stunt is part of a more extensive climate campaign the Last Generation waged in and around Munich. Besides the runway, they have been “supergluing” themselves to roads and autobahns during rush hour, causing chaos and traffic jams.
Germany’s state-run DW TV reported:
Earlier in the week, the youth climate group Last Generation restarted a campaign to publicize the peril the planet faces with climate change with a series of stunts gamed towards maximum publicity for their activists.They kicked off the latest round of public actions by supergluing themselves to the road outside Berlin’s central train station. In Munich, nine individuals were responsible for blocking traffic around Karlsplatz square with similar tactics.Last Generation activists also hung signs above the A96 highway in Bavaria and caused brief closures of the autobahn.
Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria, is mainly Catholic and conservative, with the public having little sympathy for radicalized climate activism.
“Climate-gluers are damaging environmental protection and endangering their fellow people,” Bavarian state prime minister Markus Söder said, responding to an airport incident. “Bavaria is therefore tackling them decisively,” he warned.
The Last Generation climate agitators have been gluing themselves to motorways and autobahns across Germany, causing massive rush-hour traffic jams.
The group, which according to its website, is also active in U.S. and Australia, claims to be humanity’s “last generation” threatened by an imminent extinction. The extremist group quotes UN chief António Guterres, declaring on its website: “We have the choice: Collective action or collective suicide.” We humans “still have two to three years in which we can leave the fossil-fuel path of annihilation,” the cult-like outfit claims.
The group’s activists have also been in the headlines for vandalizing museums across Europe by throwing paint or gluing themselves to precious artworks, including those by famous painters like Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh.
[All excerpts from German media reports translated by the author]
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