Scholz chides climate activists for targeting artworks

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday condemned climate activists for targeting famous artworks in the run-up to the COP27 climate summit aimed at curbing global warming.

“I am very sad about what is happening and very glad that it has not come to the point where an irreplaceable artwork has been permanently damaged,” Scholz told a Berlin press conference.

“There are other ways to express one’s opinion and perhaps a little creativity could be used,” he said.

Climate activists in several European countries have targeted famous museum pieces to draw attention to their cause ahead of COP27, which will take place in Egypt in November.

In Germany, protesters last week threw mashed potatoes over a Claude Monet painting in Potsdam and on Sunday glued themselves to an exhibition of a dinosaur skeleton at Berlin’s Natural History Museum.

Scholz also urged the activists not to endanger others after a street protest reportedly prevented emergency workers from getting to the scene of an accident on Monday.

According to the Bild daily, a specialist vehicle was delayed in reaching a cyclist who had been run over by a cement mixer in Berlin because activists had glued themselves to a nearby street.

Protesters trying to make a political point “should always bear in mind that there should be no endangerment of others”, Scholz said.

“If that is what happened here, it is very regrettable and very saddening,” he said.

The Last Generation environmental protest group said on Monday it could not rule out that the reported delay was “due to a traffic jam caused by us”.

The group said it hoped the cyclist’s condition “was not aggravated by the delay”.

The police and the fire service were unable to confirm the report when contacted by AFP.

Scholz said it was “obvious” such street protests had “not met with widespread approval”.