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German climate activist marks two months of hunger strike

A climate activist staging a hunger strike outside the German chancellery on Tuesday vowed to intensify his protest as he marked 62 days without food.

German climate activist hunger strike
German climate activist Wolfgang "Wolli" Metzeler-Kick is pictured after a news conference at the "hunger camp" in Berlin on his 62nd day of hunger strike against the German government‘s climate policies. Photo: Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP

Wolfgang Metzeler-Kick, 49, began his protest in early March under the motto “Starving until you tell the truth”, and has since been joined by three other activists.

He and his fellow protesters want Chancellor Olaf Scholz to acknowledge that “the climate catastrophe threatens the survival of human civilisation” and are calling for a “radical change of course” to reduce emissions in Europe’s largest economy.

Metzeler-Kick, an environmental protection engineer and longtime activist, told AFP he was willing “to put (his) life in danger”.

He stopped eating 62 days ago and wants to go further: “I’m going to intensify my hunger strike. As of tomorrow, I will temporarily stop drinking,” he said.

Richard Cluse, a 57-year-old engineer, joined the protest 44 days ago, and Michael Winter, a 61-year-old biologist, joined after 22 days.

READ ALSO: Europe warned it must do more to deal with climate crisis

A fourth activist, Adrien Lack, 34, joined on Tuesday with a placard reading: “I will only talk to the chancellor.”

A doctor told a press conference on Tuesday that Winter was in a “very critical” condition and his body mass index had fallen below 16 kg/m2 — considered severely underweight.

Climate activists have resorted to some eye-catching stunts to get their message across in Germany over the past two years.

Protesters from the radical group known as Letzte Generation (“Last Generation”) have repeatedly sat down on busy roads and glued their hands to the tarmac.

Protesters have also thrown mashed potatoes over a Claude Monet painting in Potsdam and glued themselves to an exhibition of a dinosaur skeleton at Berlin’s Natural History Museum.

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POLITICS

‘Dexit’ would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

According to the German Economic Institute (IW), Germany's exit from the EU – the so-called Dexit – would cost millions of jobs and significantly reduce the country's prosperity.

'Dexit' would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

In a study presented by the Cologne-based institute on Sunday, the authors showed that a Dexit would cause real GDP to drop by 5.6 percent after just five years. This means that Germany would lose 690 billion euros in value creation during this time.

In addition, Germany as an export nation is dependent on trade with other countries, especially with other EU countries, warned the authors. Companies and consumers in Germany would therefore feel the consequences “clearly” and around 2.5 million jobs would be lost.

The study is based on the consequences of Britain’s exit from the EU, such as the loss of trade agreements and European workers.

Taken together, the losses in economic output in Germany in the event of a Dexit would be similar to those seen during Covid-19 and the energy cost crisis in the period from 2020 to 2023, the authors warned.

Brexit is therefore “not an undertaking worth imitating,” warned IW managing director Hubertus Bardt. Rather, Brexit is a “warning for other member states not to carelessly abandon economic integration.”

Leader of the far-right AfD party Alice Weidel described Great Britain’s exit from the European Union at the beginning of the year as a “model for Germany.”

In an interview published in the Financial Times, Weidel outlined her party’s approach in the event her party came to power: First, the AfD would try to resolve its “democratic deficit” by reforming the EU. If this was not successful, a referendum would be called on whether Germany should remain in the EU.

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