Because of radicalization

Ende Gelände activists now under observation

Ende Gelände activists at an action in 2019

(Bild: AFP/John MacDougall)

The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the climate protection movement Ende Gelände as a suspected left-wing extremist group. This means that the domestic intelligence service can now monitor the group or use informants.

The report on the protection of the constitution for the past year mentions an "intensification of forms of action, including sabotage". In addition, "a radicalization with regard to the dominant ideological positions of the group is clearly recognizable." 

Ende Gelände is a Europe-wide alliance that has organized one large-scale action per year since 2015 (and two in 2017 and 2019) in German lignite mining areas. Among other things, the group demands an immediate coal phase-out, the preservation of villages threatened by opencast lignite mining, a phase-out of gas and climate justice.

Forest and coal-fired power plant occupied
Previous actions have included the forest occupation in Hambach Forest and climate camps in the Rhineland and Lusatia. In April, around 100 activists from the group blocked the Uniper Scholven coal-fired power plant in Gelsenkirchen (see video above).

The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution has now classified the climate movement as a suspected case of left-wing extremism. In the past year, an increase in both left-wing and right-wing extremism has been registered.