While the police in Lützerath are still trying to move forward with the evacuation of the village, climate activists have started solidarity actions in several other places in Germany. These are aimed at increasing pressure on the Greens. The party has been particularly criticized by the climate movement since agreeing to a deal between the state government and the energy company RWE in North Rhine-Westphalia, which provides for an early disposal of coal but also for the excavation of Lützerath.
A group calling itself “Interventionist Left” has occupied the headquarters of the Green Party in Düsseldorf since around 3 pm, the police and Martin Lechtape, spokesman for the Greens of North Rhine-Westphalia, confirmed to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “We asked them to leave and called the police,” Lechtape said. The activists call on twitterState President Mona Neubauer may impose a moratorium to stop the eviction in Lützerath.
There was also an action by climate activists in Flensburg: There, the “Ende Gelände” group occupied the regional office of the Federal Minister for the Economy, Robert Habeck, as the Flensburger Tageblatt reports. Habeck had previously criticized the protests in Lützerath. The place is “the wrong symbol,” he told the ZDF late on Wednesday. Lützerath does not represent “the continuation of the energy policy of the past”, but is, on the contrary, the “final blow” in the generation of energy from lignite.
Habeck sees the early phasing out of coal from 2038 to 2030 in the Rhine mining area as a success and the abandonment of Lützerath as a necessary evil. According to Habeck, he doesn’t like the fact that more lignite has had to be used to temporarily generate electricity in recent months. But it was essential because of the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis.
Activists are fighting rainy and stormy weather
Meanwhile, in Lützerath, the police are trying to clear protesters from the remaining buildings and tree houses. Tree felling and demolition work is also underway. Two bulldozers have started to demolish a hall that was once used for agriculture. In addition, several structures built by activists over time were demolished.
The police also broke up a late afternoon demonstration, in which Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer also participated. The demonstration came from a demonstration train which departed from the Erkelenz district of Keyenberg towards Lützerath, about four kilometers away. As the village is now completely cordoned off and surrounded by a double fence, the participants were unable to enter the village. So they blocked an access road. Police surrounded about 100 protesters and gradually drove them away, including Neubauer. “We want to stay here until we are taken,” she previously told the German Press Agency. A police spokesman said the 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.
open detailed viewA policeman uses a crowbar to open the window of a log cabin. On the second day of the eviction, the police also invaded the farms and tree houses.
(Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa)
Rainy and stormy weather is troubling activists in Lützerath. The situation is particularly dangerous for people in tree houses, said a spokeswoman for the “Lützi stays” initiative. However, numerous “towers, tree houses and tall structures such as large monopods” are still occupied by people. Some activists also appear to have dug a tunnel at the site and hidden in it. They want to stop heavy vehicles from entering the area because the tunnel could collapse.
Aachen Police Chief Dirk Weinspach, who was in charge of the operation, said before the evacuation that he expected “many forms of resistance”. It may take some time before all seven remaining buildings and treehouses are deserted. On Wednesday, police began clearing the activists’ protest camp with thousands of police officers and reported widely satisfied on Twitter on the first day: around 200 activists had already left the place voluntarily and without police action.
With article from dpa news agency