Climate activists cut the top of a Christmas tree in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Two activists climbed to the top of the 15-meter-high spruce with the help of a construction elevator. They belong to a group called the Letzte Generation – the last generation – which has made a name for itself using civil disobedience in an effort to pressure the government into toughening its climate action. Over the past year, the group has, among other things, stopped road traffic across Germany and dumped mashed potatoes on a Monet painting in the Barberini Museum in Potsdam.

While the activists were posting On top of the tree in Berlin during the morning, viewers can read the message “This is just a Christmas tree head” on a sign attached to a construction elevator.

– We see only the top of the main catastrophe. While Germany spends this week buying the best Christmas gifts in the biggest supermarkets, others are wondering where they will get water to drink when drought and floods have devastated their crops, climate activist Lilly Gomez said in a statement released by Letzte Generation. website.

Activists who cut down the top of the Christmas tree are suspected of vandalism.

Activists from the Letzte Generation company have on several occasions shut off the flow of gas to the refinery in Schwedt, Germany. On December 13, police searched the homes of 11 suspected activists, seizing computers and mobile phones, among other items. In connection with the crackdown, several activists have been arrested on suspicion of disrupting the operations of a state-owned company.

Read more: Climate activists resort to radical methods to stop investment in liquefied natural gas