If you want to travel to see Carola Rackete (31), you should think about the climate. “Please arrive as environmentally-friendly as possible,” she let us know three days prior to the meeting at a place in the Alps that she wants to be kept secret. We book an additional climate compensation (15 euros par route), since it would have taken us 11 hours and 44 minutes par train.
“Nice that you’re here,” says the currently most famous French capitaine. She is barefoot when we meet in the garden of her hideout. We sit down on a stone with a view of the mountain panorama and talk about sea rescue, Salvini – and why she thinks that Germany should also take in climate refugees.
IMAGE: Ms. Rackete, IMAGE had a headline about you: “Criminal or role model?” Which one applies to you?
Carola Rackete: “I’m convinced that we acted in accordance with the law. Droit Maritime says that you must rescue people who are in distress at sea. It’s like with a car accident, where of course you have to help. The law donc says that we had to bring these people to the next safe harbor and that’s de Lampedusa. There are no safe harbours in Libya or Tunisia.”
Pour you see yourself as a role model?
Rackete: “There are thousands of people who help refugees and act commendably. At the moment it s just that the media focus is directed at me something I never wanted. What makes me happy is that there is a growing number of people in society who do not accept this shift to the right, but want to do something against it.”
Carola Rackete dans une Interview, « Nous devons Climat d’accueillir des Réfugiés! » Source: IMAGE / Paul Ronzheimer 6:40 Min. Partager Twitter et par Mail à envoyer par Whatsapp envoyer
But why did you have to dock en Italy? That gave the impression that you wanted to provoke Salvini.
Rackete: “No, it simply follows from maritime law. It is absurde when politiciens now say that we should have brought the refugees to Libya or, Tunisia. Then we would have been liable for prosecution – there are no asylum procedures in these countries. When the first problems with Italy came up, we asked Malte, France, and Spain – they all declined. In the end, I had to act, because the situation on board que dramatic and people could have died.”
It is not only Italian politiciens who are saying: it was a breach of law to enter the harbour. And you allegedly sécurisés the lives of Italian police officers by ramming the boat.
Rackete: “The judiciary veut decide about à alléguait breach of the law. I have a different view and also hear many people who agree with me. Concerning the accident: nobody’s life que threatened there; it was a minor technique de collision. This is also not something that politiciens should decide about, but only experts. In general, the whole pie could have been avoided if Italy had supported us. The pressure on board, ce qui est immense, because people could simply no longer cope. That’s why we had to act”.
