About 15,000 demonstrators, according to the police – 35,000 according to the organizers – including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, protested against the expansion of a lignite opencast mine, which led to the destruction of the hamlet of Lützerath
Around 70 police officers were injured on Saturday in clashes with thousands of protesters opposing the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany, German police said on Sunday. About 15,000 demonstrators, according to the police – 35,000 according to the organizers – including the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, protested against the expansion of an open-cast lignite mine that led to the destruction of the hamlet of Lützerath in the Rhine catchment area of Düsseldorf and Cologne, supporting activists who occupied the site and their Expulsion the police has promised since Wednesday.
Lützerath is alive! reported dozens of injuries in the ranks of the militants, some of them serious, on Saturday, in particular from dog bites and water cannons. A spokeswoman for the protest organizers, Indigo Drau, accused the police of “sheer violence” at a press conference and said the officers beat the activists “uncontrollably”, including blows to the head.
Legal proceedings were initiated against about 150 people. According to the police, the situation on site became “very calm” again on Sunday. On the police side, nearly 70 of their agents were injured.
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The evacuation campaign in Lützerath is politically sensitive for the coalition of social democrats Olaf Scholz, who is in government with environmentalists, and activists have accused him of treason. The government says the mine’s expansion is necessary for Germany’s energy security, which must compensate for the loss of Russian gas supplies, a compelling reason opponents are contesting in the name of the fight against fossil fuels.
German mounted police officers disperse the crowd in Lützerath. INA FASSBENDER / AFP