SCHWALMSTADT (dpa-AFX) – With a protest action at a construction site on the A49 in northern Hesse, the environmental protection organization Greenpeace demonstrated on Wednesday against the construction of the Autobahn in Germany. According to Greenpeace, 33 activists took part in the action near Schwalmstadt. They erected a five-meter yellow X in front of a construction machine as a sign of resistance “against further climate-damaging highways”.
According to the police, activists also chained themselves to the construction machine, some fastened their hands in tubes and, according to a police spokesman, refused to release the machine for hours. The officers therefore cut open the metal tubes to detach the people from each other. According to police, no one was injured. The people were provisionally arrested to establish their identities. The police spokesman said there was initial suspicion of coercion against them.
The clearing for the further construction of the A49 in northern and central Hesse had caused massive protests from environmental and climate protectionists. “Every additional kilometer of motorway destroys valuable nature and takes us further away from climate-friendly mobility,” said Lena Donat, Greenpeace mobility expert. “We need traffic planning in which nature and the climate no longer get under the wheels.” Instead of “more and more concrete runways” a consistent expansion of the track is necessary. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FPD) is currently planning almost 1000 kilometers of additional motorways. According to Greenpeace research, planned new construction and expansion projects would cut through 115 protected areas, according to the environmental protection organization.
At the beginning of May, the federal government launched a package of laws for the controversial acceleration of transport projects. It also includes accelerated conversion and expansion of certain highway projects. They are mainly in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. According to the Ministry of Transport, the conversion or expansion of existing motorways involves a total of 988 kilometers, which corresponds to 7.5 percent of the existing network. Specifically, it is about the widening of lanes. The goal: fewer traffic jams and smoother traffic./csc/DP/stw