Hunger strike activist challenges Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Hunger strike activist challenges Chancellor Olaf Scholz

In the science fiction novel "Hitchhiker through the Galaxy", the number 42 is presented as the answer to the all-important question about the meaning of life. Wolfgang Metzeler, a 49-year-old engineer for technical environmental protection, has been in the hunger strike in front of the Chancellery for 42 days to force an answer from Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the climate crisis. This radical action is intended to bring about a serious examination of the demands regarding climate change.

Metzeler is not only in his protest. After the opening of the camp in the Spreebogenpark, two other people, Richard Cluse and Michael Winter, joined the hunger strike. The 21-year-old Linda Doblinger also supports the campaign and emphasizes the urgency that the public understands the seriousness of the climate catastrophe. Doblinger explains that it is important that political decision -makers honestly deal with the scientific facts, without a political calculation.

The activists are calling for radical change in climate policy because the situation is already critical. Metzeler even threatens a thirst strike to increase the pressure on the government. Although the government under Olaf Scholz emphasizes that it is on the right track with her climate policy and will not go into individual demands, the starving continues to stick to their protest.

The action of the hunger strikers is reminiscent of similar events in the past, in which pressure was exerted through radical action in order to achieve political attention. Despite the hard attitude of the government and the Chancellery, the activists seem to be determined to continue their demands and the fight against the climate crisis, even if this means to go to their limits.