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Protests against German car industry rev up in Frankfurt
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Sept 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of protesters, many
on bicycles, gathered in the southern German city of Frankfurt Saturday to
protest outside the city’s motor show, part of a new wave of environmental
activism.
Between 15,000 and 25,000 people — according to estimates from the police
and the organisers respectively — turned out calling for radical change, in
a sign of growing impatience with the motor industry.
Campaigners are pressing Germany’s car industry to go green and abandon
internal combustion engines. Saturday’s rally — and another planned on
Sunday — followed up on protests inside the Frankfurt Exhibition Centre
earlier in the week.
“The car industry has cheated on diesel and is contributing to the
worsening climate crisis,” said Gerald Neubauer, a spokesman for the campaign
group Campact, co-organisers of Saturday’s demonstration Saturday at
Frankfurt’s biennial International Motor Show (IAA).
Diesel-fuelled cars have remained at low levels of popularity in Germany
following Volkswagen’s massive “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal of
2015.
“The motor show represents the last century,” Christoph Bautz, director of
Campact, one of the campaigning group’s behind the protest, told AFP.
“We want the future to belong to the bus, the trains and to bicycles — we
don’t want any more.”
Two stretches of motorway were sealed off to allow thousands of the
protesters to make their way to the venue on bicycles.
– ‘Climate killers’ –
The combination of protests and civil disobedience aimed at Germany’s car
industry shows the sector no longer enjoys the untouchable status it once
held as a key driver in Europe’s biggest economy.
The 10-day long IAA show, where the latest automobile trends are being
showcased until September 22, is crystallising tensions over the car industry
in Germany, where climate change is shaking up the public discourse.
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There are already calls to ban gas-guzzling SUVs from German city centres
after four pedestrians, including a three-year-old boy, were killed this
month when one mounted the pavement in Berlin.
“Such tank-like cars do not belong in cities,” tweeted Stephan von Dassel,
a Greens politician and mayor of Berlin’s Mitte district, where the fatal
accident happened.
“They are ‘climate killers’, even without accidents — every driving error
becomes a life-threatening danger for innocent (pedestrians).”
When the Frankfurt car show opened to the press on Tuesday, Greenpeace
activists inflated a giant black balloon outside, bearing the inscription
CO2.
Then on Thursday at the Volkswagen and BMW stands, protesters climbed on
SUVs with signs bearing the slogan “Climate Killers” during a visit by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“The automotive industry has still not understood the climate crisis,”
Greenpeace activist Benjamin Stephan told AFP.
“Instead of celebrating fuel-guzzling SUVs, manufacturers must put an end
to these urban tanks and shut down combustion engines.”
Manufacturers must “get out of petrol and diesel, get out of the
combustion engine and reduce the number of cars”, added Campact’s Neubauer.
The vision for many environmental activists is seeing German cities free
of cars.
– ‘Under pressure’ –
“The IAA is a symbolic place, where politicians meet carmakers to
congratulate themselves” on an outdated mode of transport, said the Sand in
the Gearbox spokeswoman, using the pseudonym Tina “Velo” – bike in French.
“We have to abandon cars, we want car-free cities.”
Sand in the Gearbox is representative of a more radical faction of
Germany’s environmental movement which is prepared to engage in civil
disobedience to attract attention.
Movements such as the Extinction Rebellion network, which use non-violent
resistance to protest climate change, are spreading across Europe.
In Germany, the similar group Ende Gelaende succeeded in occupying and
temporarily shutting down a large brown coal mine in June, which has
galvanised the anti-car movement.
“The automotive industry is under pressure — it no longer has the support
of society as it did a few years ago, because it has missed out on
developments and has no concepts for the future,” added Tina Velo.
Having long been regarded as an essential cog in Europe’s biggest economy,
Germany’s auto industry has reached a crossroads as it struggles to adapt to
the trend of electric cars.
On Thursday, Merkel said she would support the sector through
“revolutions” in climate protection and digitalisation, but warned firms must
develop new technologies and win back lost trust among the public.
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