Neubauer calls on politicians and media to protect the truth

Berlin – In light of accusations of hostility to business and climate protection, activist Luisa Neubauer has called on politicians and the media to protect the truth. "Some people have been frighteningly successful in propaganda and spreading fake news, some of which has even been picked up by reputable media and broadcasters," she told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" (Saturday edition). "Should we now spend four years talking about how disastrous the Heating Act was? Or do we have to talk about how to protect the truth in public discourse and how we assert ourselves against disinformation from the fossil fuel lobby and against hostility to science? So that my opinion isn't worth more than your fact? I'm for the second path," Neubauer told the NOZ. At the same time, Neubauer warned Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) against abandoning climate protection for fear of the AfD. "It's not electric cars and heat pumps that produce AfD voters. Rather, a fair and sustainable policy would be a huge opportunity to win people back," she said. "We have to improve the energy transition, but we can't reverse it without causing serious damage to the economy, the entire country, and its residents." Chancellor Merz has "unfortunately become a victim of his own rhetoric," Neubauer analyzed. "To attack the traffic light coalition in order to distance oneself from it, and now to be left with no answers of one's own, let alone better, is not good." She found it inexplicable to roll back necessary measures like the Building Energy Act and expand fossil fuel subsidies like the commuter allowance during the most heated legislative period. "I call that middle-finger politics." Luisa Neubauer defended techno-tourists flying through Europe. "It's not my place to pick on people who jet off to Berghain. Rubbing individuals' carbon footprints in their faces was a perfidious idea by the oil companies to distract from their own responsibility. It's rightly gone out of fashion," the climate protection activist told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung." "More important than the question of individual decisions is the question of why politicians haven't long since ensured that the contribution of air travel to global warming is reflected in the ticket price," Neubauer continued. Instead, the government is still pushing for it to be cheaper and more convenient to use fossil fuels. "The new coalition wants to subsidize kerosene even more, cutting costs on the 49-euro ticket." With regard to young people's weekend party tourism, Neubauer pointed out: "Perhaps many people are simply too mentally exhausted in light of the simultaneous crises to give much thought to their emissions. The crucial point is: according to a recent study by the University of Bonn, 89 percent of the world's population wants their governments to do more to protect the climate."