German climate activist completes two-month hunger strike May 8, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- May 7, 2024
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
German climate activist completes two-month hunger strike
A climate activist on hunger strike in front of the German Chancellery on Tuesday vowed to intensify his protest as he completes 62 days without food.
Wolfgang Metzeler-Kick, 49, began his protest at the beginning of March under the slogan “Starve until you tell the truth” and has since joined three other activists.
He and his fellow protesters want Chancellor Olaf Scholz to acknowledge that “the climate catastrophe threatens the survival of human civilization” and are calling for a “radical change of course” to reduce emissions in Europe's largest economy.
Metzeler-Kick, an environmental protection engineer and long-time activist, told AFP that 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. From tomorrow, I'm going to stop drinking temporarily,” 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.
A fourth activist, 34-year-old Adrien Lack, joined the protest on Tuesday with a sign that read: “I will only talk to the chancellor”.
A doctor told a press conference on Tuesday that Winter was in a “very critical” condition and that his body mass index had fallen below 16 kg/m2 - considered seriously underweight.
Over the past two years, climate activists have resorted to some eye-catching stunts to get their message across in Germany.
Protesters from the radical group known as Letzte Generation (“Last Generation”) have repeatedly sat down on busy roads and stuck their hands on the asphalt.
The protesters also threw mashed potatoes over a Claude Monet painting in Potsdam and glued themselves to an exhibition of a dinosaur skeleton in Berlin's Natural History Museum.
cka-fec/hmn/bc
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