Climate protesters rally in German cities

Climate action group Fridays for Future held large rallies in several German cities on Friday, just two days before national elections, reported dpa.

The demonstrations are part of a global "climate strike" that the activists say include 1,400 demonstrations in more than 80 countries.

Germany is a particular focus of the demonstrations this year, with 450 protests registered. The movement's Swedish founder, Greta Thunberg, is set to attend the demonstration in central Berlin, in front of the Reichstag parliament building.

An estimated several thousand people were at the demonstration by early afternoon, according to observers.

A group of primary schoolchildren at the protest chanted: "We are here, we are loud, because you are selling our future out!"

"We don't want the world to be broken and full of plastic rubbish," said 10-year-old Sasha.

Coming just two days ahead of general elections where climate change has been a major campaign issue, the impact of the protests - particularly on the fortunes of the Green party - has become hotly debated.

The Green's candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, made an unexpected appearance at a demonstration in the western city of Cologne. Baerbock's Greens are currently third in the polls.

"Just like in Cologne, tens of thousands of children, young people and people of all ages are taking to the streets today across Germany in the climate strike and making it clear: They want a new start because they know that the future of all of us is at stake," Baerbock wrote on Twitter.

The front-runner for the chancellorship, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, wrote also on Twitter that he supported the protests, saying it was the "correct" course of action.

The northern city of Hamburg and Freiburg in the south-west are also hosting climate demonstrations.

The global Fridays for Future climate strike has become an annual event and often comes in September around the time of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Millions were estimated to have joined the protest two years ago. Last year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the action went partly online.

This year, with many countries having lifted at least some of their coronavirus restrictions, activists plan to fill the streets in select cities in all European Union countries and across the globe as they call on governments to be more ambitious with their climate policies.

Marking the start of the "global climate strike," Fridays for Future tweeted a picture of participants in Brazil and the Philippines protesting simultaneously.

"Strikers from both sides of the world called on their presidents to stop lying and address the roots of the climate crisis," the group tweeted.

Youth activists and fishing workers staged a protest along Manila Bay, demanding action on climate change and denouncing a local reclamation project.

They carried placards and signs reading: "Seas are rising, so are we!" and calling for more "adaptation amidst the climate crisis."