Hundreds Attend 'Fridays For Future' Rally In Dusseldorf

Several hundred people took to the streets of Dusseldorf on Friday to express their support for the Fridays for Future youth movement to mitigate the effects of climate change, Sabrina Szameitat reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Photo Insert: Protesters at the Fridays for Future rally in Germany wearing masks depicting CDU leader Armin Laschet as a clown.

The police initially estimated the number of participants at around 800, despite the fact that the organization had said in advance that some 3,000 people would attend.

Among the issues that attendees wanted to draw attention to were the policies of Armin Laschet, who is running to head the next German government after the September elections. Laschet is the state premier of North Rhine Westphalia, of which Dusseldorf is the capital, and leads the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU).

Teen activist Luisa Neubauer took part in the demonstration. According to Neubauer, the North Rhine Westphalian state government is failing to cope with the flood disaster and is preventing the expansion of wind power.

"People are beginning to understand that Laschet does not want to - or is not able to - stop the crises of our time," she said.

Other environmental organizations are also planning to join in, including Greenpeace, which plans to set up a carnival float next to the stage criticizing Laschet's policies on the climate and coal power.

The float is to show the lawmaker in a jester's cap, using a huge lignite excavator to bring down the church in Keyenberg, which is among the villages to be cleared to make way for coal mining.

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