The Bavarian inquiry adds to an investigation launched last year by prosecutors in Neuruppin, outside Berlin, over actions against an oil refinery in eastern Germany. That investigation is considering suspicions that Last Generation activists formed a criminal organization, a label that some conservative-leaning regional officials also are mulling.
Munich prosecutors said the people under investigation are accused of organizing and promoting a campaign to “finance further criminal offenses” by the group and collecting at least 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million). Two of them also are suspected of trying to sabotage an oil pipeline that connects the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt with the Italian port of Trieste in April 2022.
Wednesday’s searches — accompanied by orders to seize two bank accounts and other assets — aimed to secure evidence on the membership structure of Last Generation and on its financing. There were no arrests.
Last Generation has acknowledged that its protests are provocative, but it argues that by stirring friction it can encourage debate within society about climate change.
In a Twitter post on Wednesday, the group wrote: “Nationwide raid. #completelynutty.”
“Searches of lobby structures and seizures of government’s fossil money — When?” it said.
Another climate activist group, Extinction Rebellion, voiced solidarity with Last Generation. It contended in a tweet that the main aim of conducting raids on the grounds that it was a criminal organization was “to distract attention from the true criminals.”
