Shouldn't we know that right-wing extremist parties have exploited social crises in the past to come to power?
This will be no different in the climate catastrophe. Extreme weather events, sinking groundwater, crop failures and increasingly expensive food: it's about our existence.
The climate catastrophe will hit first and hardest the people who least caused it. Areas in which large parts of humanity now live are in danger of becoming uninhabitable. It's about suffering and death for billions of people.
Every day people in the Global South have to flee. Many people have no alternative but to toil under conditions that violate human rights in order to extract resources for our prosperity.
German politicians fail to recognize our responsibility for this. They tolerate systematic violence against people at the EU's external border. We used to criticize Trump for building a wall. Today Europe is a fortress behind barbed wire.
We are at a crossroads. It's time for an honest look into the future. For admitting that renewed fascism is possible in Germany if we don't change course. A world of crises and adverse living conditions provides breeding ground for fascism. It is time – also because of our historical responsibility – to confront this consistently.
We must address unsustainable social injustice and climate catastrophe together.
The government imposes a CO2 price and does not pay it back to citizens as climate money. The CO2 price makes the simplest needs, such as heating living space, more expensive. The poorest in our society and the middle class should save. They can no longer afford the energy. The rich, who consume the most, don't care about rising prices.
Saving energy cannot be solved through price increases alone! This is a question of justice and therefore a question of fair rationing that puts a limit on the overconsumption of the rich.
If water becomes scarce, let's not let the price rise to infinity so that some can no longer afford to drink while others water their lawns.
Why are some people allowed to own more and more houses while others have to live on the streets? This is reminiscent of Monopoly. We need money for everyone, so the super-rich have to give something - a wealth tax. Finally repairing and expanding the railway network, insulating houses, renaturalizing moors, so many things are possible that bring something to everyone instead of just the luxury of a few.
It is an illusion that everything can be solved through technology. It is high time to speak the uncomfortable truth: some things that are taken for granted today must come to an end. If we want to protect our livelihoods, the government must fairly shut down the airline industry - especially private jets and domestic flights. Other things cannot continue to exist at their current size - for example the automotive and chemical industries.
These challenges are so great that politicians shy away from them and continue to send young people into training for industries that have no future. There are civil society initiatives that show that retraining is possible. For example, people can learn solar installation within a few weeks. But to address these challenges, we should first hear the voices of those most directly affected by the impacts.
We need an honest debate. Only when the parties stop telling the comfortable old fairy tales and say what is at stake can we tackle the challenges of our time. The majority do not want our children's future to be destroyed. The majority want a fair society. A society that doesn't just talk about its values in Sunday speeches, but actually acts according to them.
That is why people from civil society and especially our Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, are called upon to bring honesty into our democratic debate.
Hand on heart. It's time for honesty.
