Enlarge image
Police officers and activists in Lützerath
Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
Before the planned evacuation of the village of Lützerath in the Rhenish lignite mining area, there were apparently clashes between police officers and climate protection groups.
A police spokesman said it was being investigated on suspicion of breach of the peace because firecrackers and stones had been thrown.
A reporter from the dpa news agency reported that there had been scuffles between the police and activists at the town sign of Lützerath.
The demonstrators also threw bottles.
Lützerath borders on the Garzweiler II lignite opencast 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 had barricaded themselves behind a burning barricade on the access road to the lignite village of Lützerath.
The police presence is necessary, said a spokesman, in order to prepare the evacuation with more than 1,000 officers.
Such a deployment is expected sometime after January 10th.
The fate of Lützerath has been at the center of violent 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. According to the agreement between the state and RWE, the coal under the Lützerath settlement is needed to operate lignite-fired power plants "at high capacity during the energy crisis".
jpz/dpa