The accusation comes late, but with full force: Climate activist Luisa Neubauer accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) of comparing “climate activists with Nazis”. In doing so, he put the Nazi regime into perspective, “and in a paradoxical way, the climate crisis at the same time,” wrote Neubauer on Twitter on Sunday evening.

“He stylizes climate protection as an ideology with parallels to the Nazi regime. In 2022. Jesus. It’s such a scandal.”

The incident that Neubauer is addressing had already happened last Friday. As various media, including WELT, had already reported, the Chancellor’s appearance at the Kirchentag in Stuttgart had been disrupted by several activists.

Scholz then criticized the heckling with reference to targeted disruptive actions in the past, but did not draw a direct Nazi comparison, leaving open what he was referring to. His words could also be understood as an allusion to the demolition of events by radicalized student groups in the 1970s, the late period of which he himself had experienced.

An activist had tried to storm the stage during the appearance of the SPD politician, but was prevented from doing so by security forces and led away. Another activist shouted “bullshit” when Scholz was talking about phasing out coal-fired power generation and the jobs that would be lost in opencast mining as a result.

Scholz commented on the disruption with the words: “I’ll be honest, these black-clad productions at various events by the same people always remind me of a long time ago, and thank God.”

This also includes an “acting practiced performance, in which you always stage yourself,” he said. “I’ve been to events, there were five people, dressed the same, everyone had a practiced attitude, and (they) do it again every time.” That’s not a discussion. “This is not participation in a discussion, but an attempt to manipulate events for your own purposes, you shouldn’t do that.”