By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 41 minutes ago, Updated now
Runners during the Berlin Marathon imago sportfotodienst / Imago / Panoramic
Activists of the German movementLast generation» threaten to disrupt the running of the Berlin marathon on Sunday, a week after spraying paint on the monument at the Brandenburg Gate, the finish line of the event. “We are going to interrupt the Berlin marathon. We cannot run away from climate catastrophe», Affirmed, without giving further details, this movement in a press release on Friday.
Le 12 September, Last Generation («Last generation» in French editor’s note) had already tried, in a joint action with the French movement «Latest Renovation», to disrupt the football match between Germany and France in Dortmund. The action had failed, the four activists having been “catch» before, indicated a spokesperson for “Latest Renovation» to AFP.
On Sunday, however, activists managed to spray paint the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’s most famous monument, to call for accelerating the exit from fossil fuels and better combating global warming. The cleaning of the door, built at the end of the 18th century, is not finished, a specific product must be applied to eliminate the colored particles on the sandstone blocks that make up the building.
It is this symbol of reunified Germany that the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, 38, who has already broken the world record twice, in 2018 and 2022, hopes to cross first on Sunday.We hope nothing untoward happens in terms of protests, but we have plans to cover such eventualities“, commented Jürgen Lock, general director of the marathon, on Friday during a press conference.
The organizers and the Berlin police are working together “to ensure the smooth running of the race“, he added, calling “anyone intending to demonstrate not to directly interfere with the event“. Controversial, the ecological actions known as “civil disobedience» have multiplied in recent years, particularly targeting sporting events.
The members of “Last generation» have repeatedly stuck their hands on the asphalt of major avenues to interrupt traffic or projected different substances onto paintings in museums. In July, they seriously disrupted air traffic at the German airports of Hamburg and Düsseldorf by sticking their hands on the tarmac.
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