IMAGO / aal.photo
The tyres of several SUVs were deflated in Charlottenburg on Wednesday night. A group called the ‘Widerstands-Kollektiv’ or ‘Resistance Collective’ claimed responsibility for the action. According to their statement, around 20 vehicles were targeted. The activists inserted lentils into the tyres’ valve stems and left information flyers on the cars.
The Resistance Collective has justified its actions with the heat waves and forest fires of recent weeks. A flyer placed under the windshield wipers of the affected vehicles states that SUVs are “a catastrophe for our world.” The group criticises the space required by large vehicles in the city and demands, among other things, that parking areas be decommissioned and planted with vegetation. This could provide more shade and cooler streets during the summer months, the statement says.
One of the participants explained that the action was not directed against individual SUV drivers. The aim was to raise awareness of the consequences of large and heavy vehicles. “We decided to take matters into our own hands and do our part,” the collective stated in a press release.
According to the group, they had already deflated SUV tyres in other locations in recent months. Most recently, more than 50 vehicles were affected on the island of Sylt. At the end of July, the tyres of around 40 parked cars, mostly SUVs, were also deflated on Kaiserdamm.