Austria's climate activists halt protests after making headlines

A group of Austrian climate activists who attacked a Klimt masterpiece and regularly blocked roads said Tuesday that they were ending their protests.

Last Generation Austria said they struggled to make their point against "ignorance... death threats and fines of tens of thousands of euros", and despaired of the Austrian government's inaction on climate change.

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

The group regularly made headlines over the past two years blocking streets and pouring black liquid over a screen protecting Gustav Klimt's masterpiece "Death And Life" in Vienna's Leopold Museum.

Last month they joined protests to disrupt traffic at several airports in Europe just days after the bloc's climate monitor registered the hottest day ever globally, with the daily average temperature inching up to 17.15 Celsius (62.87 Fahrenheit).

They had also called for climate protection to be enshrined as a fundamental right in the Austrian constitution.

Austria's ruling conservative People's Party (OeVP) welcomed the "dissolution" of what it called the "extremist group", which has some 280 activists.

"After numerous court cases, (they) have finally realised that Austria's streets are not a legal vacuum and that there is no fundamental right to their sabotage actions," it said.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he always considered it a mistake to make people's everyday lives and "their journeys to work more difficult".

"Nobody is above the law, no matter what their cause. It's good that this has come to an end!" he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

But the group was equally scathing about Austria's leaders. "We realise that Austria wants to remain in fossil ignorance and thus accepts that it is partly responsible for the deaths of billions of people," its statement added.

Contacted by AFP, the group said it would continue to raise awareness of climate change in Germany.