Threats to Germany’s climate campaigners fuelled by politicians’ rhetoric, says activist

Luisa Neubauer said there was ‘an increase in threats’ against climate activists, and the threats were ‘getting more concrete’. Photograph: Marten Ronneburg/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Severe policing and “scary” political rhetoric is fuelling abuse against climate activists, Germany’s best-known environmentalist has said.

“It’s not a shift any more, it’s a slide,” said Luisa Neubauer, from the German branch of Fridays for Future, the protest movement that grew out of Greta Thunberg’s school strikes. “There’s an increase in hate language, there’s an increase in threats, and the threats are getting more concrete. So they’re not saying any more ‘I hate you’ but they’re saying ‘We should come to your place, we should go get you.’”