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Burning barricade in front of the village of Lützerath
Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
Preparations for the announced evacuation have begun in Lützerath in North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to their own statements, the police were on duty "in the vicinity" of the settlement on Monday, according to their own statements, to secure construction work by the energy company RWE and to prevent crime.
Lützerath borders on the Garzweiler II lignite mine, which is operated by the energy company RWE.
At the beginning of October 2022, the federal government, the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and RWE announced that they wanted to bring the phase-out of coal in the Rhenish lignite mining area forward to 2030.
Lützerath, it was said, still had to be dredged.
Climate activists who have occupied the village, which now belongs entirely to RWE, want to prevent that.
On Monday they holed themselves up behind a burning barricade on the access road to the brown coal village of Lützerath.
An activist from the »Last Generation« alliance had his left hand taped to the access road.
Another activist sat on a tripod stand.
A police spokesman said the eviction of Lützerath was not planned for Monday.
If necessary, however, access roads would have to be cleared so that the energy company RWE could get through with its construction machines.
The group announced that three country roads near Lützerath were permanently closed on Monday.
According to the police and climate protectors, officials banned car trips to Lützerath on Monday.
The place could only be reached on foot.
Eviction on January 10th?
An evacuation of Lützerath is expected in January.
The district of Heinsberg has published a general decree that prohibits people from staying in the place.
If this eviction is not followed, the order provides the basis "for taking evacuation measures from January 10," according to the district.
The fate of Lützerath has been at the center of fierce conflicts between politicians and climate protectionists for a long time - and is linked to the debates about phasing out coal.
At the beginning of December 2022, the Bundestag approved the plans negotiated by the federal government, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and RWE to bring forward the exit from lignite mining in North Rhine-Westphalia to 2030. At the same time, however, the term of two lignite-fired power plants, which were actually shut down at the end of 2022, was extended should be extended until March 2024.
At the same time, the regulation ensures the preservation of several other localities, which were originally also intended to give way to an extension of the Garzweiler opencast mine.
However, this does not apply to the particularly symbolic Lützerath.
According to the agreement between the state and RWE, the coal under the settlement is needed in order to operate lignite-fired power plants “at high capacity during the energy crisis”.
jpz/dpa/afp
