Germany: Greta Thunberg preaches for the climate before the German legislative elections

Two days before the German legislative elections, thousands of conservationists, led by Greta Thunberg, on Friday demanded stronger measures against climate change from the candidates running for the elections qualified as voting “of the century” by activists.

“Political parties are not doing enough” for the climate, launched the young Swedish activist to a crowd of demonstrators gathered in front of the Reichstag of Berlin, where the German deputies sit.

“Yes, we have to vote and you have to vote. But remember that voting alone will not be enough”, continued the young woman, acclaimed by the audience.

Her message was addressed to both the demonstrators and the candidates running to replace Angela Merkel in the chancellery, after a suspense vote on Sunday, the games of which remain fully open.

“The earth has a fever”

For the future of the planet, it’s about voting “of the century”, he told AFP Luisa Neubauer, responsible in Germany for the “Fridays for future” movement.

“Fridays for future”, launched in 2018 and become the forum for the “climate generation”, is organizing its 8th Friday “strike” in more than 70 countries, with 470 mobilizations planned in Germany.

“The earth has a fever”, “It’s about our future”, “Vote” proclaimed the signs brandished in Berlin by a majority of teenage demonstrators, but also families who came with young children.

“I have school today but it is more important to do something for the future than to go there”, explained to AFP Leonie Hauser, a 14-year-old girl present in the rally.

Home straight before the legislative elections

Mobilizing his supporters in Cologne, in the west of the country, the SPD candidate Olaf Scholz has promised to embody the renewal after four terms and 16 years in power of Angela Merkel, of which he has been finance minister since 2018.

“Climate change is a major global disaster and that is why the young people who say today that something must be done now are right. This is what we Social Democrats will do.”, he assured.

The candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, joined the climate demonstration organized in Cologne (west) on Friday before wrapping up its campaign not far from there, in Düsseldorf.

48 hours before a vote, the results of which will be scrutinized throughout Europe, the Conservative candidate, Armin Laschet, is expected in Munich alongsideAngela Merkel.

After having withdrawn from the campaign, the leader, who will leave the political arena after 16 years in power, no longer spares her efforts to support the leader of her party, weakened by his lack of popularity and his missteps.

Major challenge

In their electoral programs, the three main candidates made environmental protection one of their priorities for the next four years, pledging to act to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C.

During the election campaign, in mid-July, theGermany was hit by deadly floods, which have left more than 180 people dead in the west of the country and are directly linked to climate change, experts say.

The objective of climate neutrality is consensus among the German parties, as is the development of renewable energies. But the times and means to achieve this are debated, between the left favorable to a large intervention of the State and the right which relies on the private sector.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change called for limiting global warming to less than 2 ° C above the pre-industrial level, and ideally 1.5 ° C.

But on the basis of the current commitments of the member states of the agreement, “the world is on the catastrophic path of 2.7 ° C”, warned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently.

Reference-feedproxy.google.com

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