Europe

German climate activist ends 31-day hunger strike at risk of death from starvation

BERLIN/MUNICH 18 (DPA/EP)

One of the activists who was holding a hunger strike in Berlin in defense of the climate has abandoned the protest this Saturday due to the serious danger to his life.

Michael Winter, 61, has announced that he has decided to eat again after 31 days, after being hospitalized in a Munich clinic since Wednesday for heart problems.

However, other participants in the campaign want to continue. According to their own statements, climate activists are seeking to persuade Chancellor Olaf Scholz to issue a government statement on the excessive concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the urgency of changing course.

According to a government spokesman, Scholz is not willing to meet the activists’ demands.

“My personal summary is that I have risked my life enough to come to the conclusion that Olaf Scholz would rather accept deaths than tell people the truth about the climate catastrophe,” Winter said.

For this reason, he now prefers to assume responsibility for his family rather than “pay the ultimate price for the common good.”

For his part, another activist who was temporarily hospitalized after fainting, Wolfgang Metzeler-Kick, said he will continue his hunger strike. The 49-year-old man has not eaten solid food since March 7, although he has eaten juices, electrolytes and vitamins.

“I don’t want to die. But I am willing to risk my life so that the population knows the truth about the severity of the climate catastrophe,” he explained, before adding that “whether with my death or with a statement from the chancellor, I leave it in hands of Olaf Scholz”.

According to the campaign organizers, four other people are on hunger strike alongside Metzeler-Kick, camped near the Ministry of Economy in Berlin.

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