Climate activists daub Berlin monument

Climate activists on Saturday smeared a monument near the German parliament with what they claimed was crude oil, reported dpa.

The Last Generation group said its supporters had daubed the "Basic Law 49" glass sculpture - which commemorates the adoption of Germany's post-war constitution in 1949 - by an office complex of the lower house, or Bundestag, in central Berlin.

A Berlin police spokesman said the monument had been smeared or doused with an unidentified substance. If appropriate, criminal charges would be brought against the six activists who had protested against government policy on fossil fuels.

"Burning oil or protecting basic rights? In 2023, only one of the two is possible," the group said in a press release. "We continue to race towards the 1.5-degree[-Celsius] limit, behind which lurk the tipping points of the climate: The Arctic is melting. The Gulf Stream is coming to a standstill. The Amazon rainforest is dying."

The government was failing in its duty before the constitution to protect citizens' livelihoods and freedom, it added.

The sculpture comprises 19 glass panes, each about 3 metres high, on which the 19 articles of the Basic Law are engraved.

In February, climate demonstrators from the group also felled a small tree in front of the Chancellery in Berlin.

Since 2022, Last Generation activists have repeatedly blocked motorway exits and other roads mainly in the capital but in other German cities too.