Several hundred demonstrators were surrounded by police, and the headquarters of the Green Party in North Rhine-Westphalia were also occupied. Greta Thunberg announced her arrival.
On the second day of the Lützerath evacuation, the police gained access to the German city’s largest lignite yard and evacuated several activists. Elsewhere, power company RWE’s felling and demolition work continued. He owns the village and wants to remove the buildings to get to the coal deposits under Lützerath. Activists want to avoid this for fear of serious consequences for the climate.
On the political scene, the evacuation of Lützerath continues to put the German Greens to the test. At the same time, the headquarters of the North Rhine-Westphalia Green Party was targeted by climate protection activists for the second time this week. About 30 activists from various climate protection organizations occupied the Düsseldorf office of the NRW Greens in protest against the party’s position on the eviction of Lützerath. A party spokesman confirmed this.
800 people gather for demonstration
According to the police, around 800 people had gathered about four kilometers from the lignite site to express their criticism of the evacuation from Lützerath. The demonstration train started in Keyenberg, another district of Erkelenz, and then headed in the direction of Lützerath. Among the demonstrators is Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer. She accused the police of disproportionate action. She complained that the police continued the evacuation on Wednesday after dark and into the night, which was dangerous and incomprehensible.
However, the demonstrators did not reach Lützerath. A group of them were surrounded on an access road to the lignite town, including Neubauer and Greenpeace board member Martin Kaiser. The protesters, who were sitting blocking the way, were surrounded by police. “We want to stay here until we are taken away,” said Neubauer of the German Press Agency.
A police spokesman said the demonstration participants were on their way to the open-air demolition area. This was dangerous and had to be prevented by the police. According to Neubauer, police occasionally used pepper spray against activists. The police spokesman said he could neither confirm nor rule this out.
Double fence around Lützerath
The town is now surrounded by a mile-long double fence that RWE built at lightning speed. This should mark company premises that unauthorized persons would not have access to, a company spokesman said. Two bulldozers began demolishing an old farm shed on Thursday.
Police began evacuating the occupied city on Wednesday. The permit is intended to lay the groundwork for power company RWE to be able to extract the lignite that lies beneath the site for power generation.
Climate protectionists are protesting the evictions in several German cities these days. According to climate protection movement Fridays for Future, a protest was planned in Munich on Thursday and in Hamburg on Friday. On Saturday, people from more than 50 locations are expected to travel to Lützerath together.
Leading climate activist Greta Thunberg also wants to travel to the German lignite town in the near future. According to information from the dpa news agency, the young Swede will participate in a demonstration against the evacuation of the town occupied by climate activists from midday on Saturday. Thunberg had already traveled to Lützerath in September 2021 to demonstrate against coal mining and for meeting the 1.5 degree climate target – the day before the federal elections at the time.
(APA/dpa)