Austrian Climate Activist Group Disbands Amid Government and Public Hostility

Last Generation Austria, a climate activist group that made headlines for controversial protests in museums, will dissolve, citing insurmountable challenges in raising awareness amid “ignorance, death threats, and fines amounting to tens of thousands of euros.” The group expressed deep frustration with the Austrian government’s inaction on climate change.

“We no longer see any prospect of success,” the group said in a statement.

In November 2022, Vienna’s Leopold Art Museum was targeted by the group when members threw black paint onto a glass barrier protecting Gustav Klimt’s painting Death and Life. The demonstration, which created the illusion that the painting’s surface had been damaged, was part of a two-year-long effort to raise alarm over worsening effects of the global climate crisis.

Last month, members of the collective disrupted traffic at several European airports. The act was days after the European Union’s climate monitoring service recorded the highest global temperature documented since 1940, with the daily average reaching 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit.

Scrutiny from Austria’s conservative government stoked public outcry and spurred significant fines. In a statement, Last Generation’s Austrian chapter called the government “incompetent” for what it described as their ongoing failure to implement more stringent climate policy. The group had previously advocated for climate protections to be passed into law under the Austrian constitution.

Austria’s conservative People’s Party (OeVP), which has majority control over the country’s government, lauded the disbandment of what they labeled an “extremist group” of 280 activists. “After numerous court cases, they have finally realized that Austria’s streets are not a legal vacuum and that there is no fundamental right to their sabotage actions,” the party said in a statement.

The group said it will put the remaining funds it has received from donors toward covering outstanding legal costs.