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Climate protection activists in a protest against open-cast lignite mining on Saturday
Photo: INA FASSBENDER / AFP
In the Rhenish lignite mining district, climate protection activists again campaigned for an immediate coal exit on Sunday.
Protest actions took place on a smaller scale than the day before, as a spokeswoman for the alliance "End of Terrain" said.
In the morning, the group declared their action weekend over.
According to the police, it remained peaceful on Sunday.
Demonstrators had occupied an already abandoned pub in Keyenberg in order to celebrate "practically a new opening," as it was said.
Activists invited residents to have breakfast together in the morning and held a church service in front of the building.
According to a police spokesman, the demonstrators left the restaurant voluntarily at ten o'clock.
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At lunchtime, climate protection organizers called for a village and forest walk from Lützerach to the forest near Keyenberg.
According to the group "Unser aller Wald", activists had erected three tree houses up to 18 meters high there in the past week to protest against the Garzweiler II opencast mine.
"This is the beginning of a tree house village," said a spokeswoman for the group.
After the end of the dispute over the Hambach Forest, the Garzweiler opencast mine has become the new center of the dispute over lignite.
RWE wants to continue operating the mine until its last lignite power plant is shut down in 2038.
The energy company points out that the coal phase-out law provides a guarantee of existence for Garzweiler.
Several villages are to give way to excavators and residents are to be relocated.
On Saturday, "Endegebiet" and other organizations called for blockade actions.
"End of the terrain" spoke of 3000 participants in the actions.
According to the police on Saturday, there were more than 1000.
According to the information, officers arrested 47 people and 64 people were taken into custody.
More than 300 other participants were transported by bus from the area of the Garzweiler opencast mine because they had ignored reservations.
Six police officers were reportedly slightly injured in the protests, but remained fit for duty.
At times, demonstrators succeeded on Saturday in occupying facilities on the edge of the opencast mine and in the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen.
A police spokeswoman said in the evening that no demonstrators had reached the direct dismantling area.
A spokeswoman for "Endegebiet" described the actions as "civil disobedience".
An RWE spokesman emphasized that the operation of the plants was not restricted.
To keep demonstrators away from the mine, the police occasionally used pepper spray and police dogs.
The demonstrators had previously ignored requests to stop walking towards the edge of the mine.
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sms / dpa