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Chief of Police Weinspach in front of a building in Lützerath: Here activists are said to have holed up in a tunnel
Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa
There are not many left who are holding the fort in Lützerath, but those who are still there will probably not give up their posts voluntarily.
During the night of Friday, the climate activists held out in heavy rain, strong winds and temperatures below ten degrees, in tree houses, underground passages and the last occupied house, which some of them christened "WG".
But a few hours later it was over.
At around 10:30 a.m., police officers entered the building, and by early evening the house was considered completely cleared.
"All the brick-built houses are now empty," said a police spokeswoman.
The action of the officials should now focus on suspected two tunnel occupiers who are apparently still holed up in underground passages under the lignite site.
"We are in contact with the activists and regularly ask if they would like to come out voluntarily," says a police spokeswoman.
Oxygen is supplied to the squatters via a blower.
Police speak of four injured activists and five injured officers
On Friday evening, the officials drew a positive interim conclusion.
"We're progressing according to plan," said a spokeswoman.
Around 470 people have been removed from the site since Wednesday, "320 voluntarily, 150 after police measures".
Four injured activists are known (one by sticking, two after resistance, one fell) and five injured police officers (including blast trauma and bombardment with pyrotechnics).
The third day of operation passed without any particular incidents, only around 100 people had to be stopped at midday on the way to the edge of the opencast mine.
A spokeswoman for "Lützerath Lebt" admitted in a statement on the short message service Twitter that the clearing of the settlement is progressing faster than expected.
About half of the approximately 180 “structures”, which include tall tree houses, sheds and monopods, have been cleared so far, the police said on Friday evening.
It is unclear whether and how many people are staying in the remaining huts.
The question that now stands in the room is: How long will it take the police to get the last activists out of the treetops and especially out of the tunnel system?
If there were still squatters in Lützerath before the demonstration planned for Saturday, the climate activists would have achieved their goal.
(You can read more about the course of the evacuation on Friday here in the minute log.)
Riots in Dusseldorf and Berlin
The environmentalists' protest is not limited to the small settlement near Erkelenz.
Even outside the double fence that RWE had built around the lignite site, resistance to the clearance work continued to stir.
On the night of Friday, the police ended an occupation of the NRW state office of the Greens in Düsseldorf.
About a dozen people were taken out of the office and some were carried after the party exercised its domiciliary rights, said a spokesman for the Düsseldorf police on Friday morning.
There was unrest in Berlin.
During the night, hooded perpetrators are said to have rioted in the Mitte district in protest against the eviction of Lützerath and smashed shop windows.
They apparently set garbage cans on fire and fired pyrotechnics at a police station, the police said.
There was talk of more than 200 rioters who roamed the streets around Hackescher Markt, damaging the windows of at least 26 shops with cobblestones and Christmas baubles filled with paint.
In the afternoon, more than 2000 Greens called for an eviction stop in Lützerath in an open letter - and are addressing the Green Minister of Economic Affairs in North Rhine-Westphalia, Mona Neubaur, and the Green Federal Minister of Economic Affairs, Robert Habeck.
"The deal negotiated with the energy company RWE in the fall threatens to break with the principles of our party," it says.
What is meant is the agreement in which RWE committed itself to phasing out coal in NRW by 2030 (instead of 20238) and not to destroy five villages in the Garzweiler opencast mine - in return, however, Lützerath and the coal may be excavated underneath.
The Greens members are fiercely accusing their own leaders: "And not only that, we are also breaking with the Paris climate agreement, the traffic light coalition agreement and the last trust of the climate justice movement." The letter contains a clear demand: "That's why we're calling on you , Robert and Mona to act immediately, to stop the evacuation in Lützerath immediately and permanently, to end police violence and not to let the conflict and the climate crisis escalate.«
The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg also visited Lützerath on Friday.
Thunberg had actually only announced himself for the big demonstration on Saturday tomorrow.
Together with Luisa Neubauer (Fridays For Future) she looked at the situation in the mostly cleared lignite village in the afternoon.
Thunberg later held up a cardboard sign that read "Keep it in the Ground" to the cameras.
During her visit, the 20-year-old also criticized the police's actions during the eviction.
"It's outrageous how the police brutality is," said Thunberg.
Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach vehemently disagreed.
Thunberg was seen in Lützerath for a short time "in an absolutely peaceful atmosphere," Weinspach told a SPIEGEL reporter.
She used most of her stay to speak to the press and make statements.
“She never took the opportunity to find out from the numerous emergency services about the situation over the past few days.
It is incomprehensible to me how she arrives at her astonishing assessment.
What I experienced here is a highly professional and de-escalating approach by the emergency services.«
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