Until now, the “Last Generation” was known for road blockades with which they wanted to draw attention to climate change. Now the movement is taking part in the European elections. She wants to disrupt things there too.
The “Last Generation” has been very polarizing in the past two years. The activists’ disruptive actions and the fight against climate change attracted not only recognition but also a lot of anger – because they blocked city centers and caused traffic jams, because they splashed paint on buildings and monuments or stuck themselves to works of art.
Now the movement is looking for new forms of protest and has found it in politics, of all places. She will be on the ballot paper for the European elections on June 9th. Because there is no five percent threshold, it is also possible for small parties with a small number of votes to enter parliament.
Biochemistry doctoral student Theodor Schnarr is one of two top candidates in the election. In an interview with t-online, he explains how the members in parliament would behave and that the sticking campaigns may not be completely a thing of the past after all.
t-online: Mr Schnarr, do you see yourself as a politician?
Theodor Schnarr: (Laughs) No. We want to cause unrest in the European Parliament and make existing injustice visible.
We are still in the discovery phase and are considering how to proceed. We are now in contact with other movements and previous MPs to find out exactly how everyday life in parliament works and where it is best to interrupt it.
So you want to specifically disrupt parliamentary operations?
Absolutely! We have to break this fake normality. The earth is burning right out from under us. Everything is getting out of hand and yet people act as if everything is normal. This is perverted and obscene.
What should these disruptions look like? Do you want to stick yourself in Parliament?
I can’t rule that out categorically. We have never completely lost our connection to glue.
Theodor Schnarr (Source: Imago/teutopress GmbH/imago)
To person
Theodor Schnarr (33) is doing his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Greifswald. He has been working for the “Last Generation” for more than two years and has taken part in over 20 road blockades during this time. Before running for the European Parliament, he was already the movement’s press spokesman.
The “Last Generation” became known as the climate glue movement, this year they made a change in strategy. Since then we hardly hear from you anymore. Isn’t that particularly inconvenient in the run-up to an election?
I take a great interest in what we do. People still want to know why the blockades occurred and what the European elections are all about. Everything we’re currently doing is advertising for ourselves, because we don’t want to be traditional politicians. Accordingly, we don’t need classic election promises. We also don’t have to explain what the “Last Generation” stands for. Because people already know that.
Other parties have stands in pedestrian zones and distribute stickers and posters. What exactly does your election campaign look like?
On the one hand, we want to confront politicians with their responsibilities, for example at events organized by other parties. There is also the idea of giving away rescued food.
But not much has been noticed about these disruptions so far. How come?
This is currently underway. The ideas and concepts are there.
Is that enough? When will there actually be noticeable actions?
We are currently focusing more on local protests and are primarily receiving local attention.
But how do you also want to draw attention to yourself nationwide? Will there be classic poster campaigns?
They are planned. But there are also ideas to make a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to the posters of other parties. But this is all still being worked out.
Isn’t it too late? All other parties are already very present with the posters.
A lot of people put a lot of energy and time into it and everyone does it with a lot of enthusiasm. If you feel like there should be more going on in a city, you can contact us. Our core competency is getting big things done in a short space of time. That’s why it’s not so bad if we don’t show up in the classic election campaign. In addition, in past elections it was often the case that many things were only decided in the last few weeks before the election. And many people are annoyed by election advertising anyway because they read false promises everywhere.
