Court: No eviction stop in Lützerath

Created: 2022-03-28Updated: 2022-03-28 10:48 am

View of the Justitia above the entrance of a regional court.

© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Symbolbild

Climate protectors, politicians, the police and the operator of the lignite opencast mine have been waiting for this decision for weeks.

Now the NRW-OVG has announced it.

Münster – The operator RWE Power has achieved partial success in the dispute over a piece of land in Lützerath at the Garzweiler II brown coal mine.

The company is allowed to make preparations for dredging the site on a farmer's property, as the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) ruled in Münster on Monday.

The resolutions are not contestable (Ref.: 21 B 1675/21 and 21 B 1676/21).

The urgent application by a farm owner and two tenants on the edge of the opencast mine against a decision by the approval authority was unsuccessful.

The Aachen administrative court had previously rejected a corresponding application for a temporary eviction stop.

RWE originally wanted to start preparatory work for the excavation of the land on November 1, 2021 after the early tenure.

Buildings were to be demolished and isolated trees and bushes removed.

After the urgent decision, this work can now begin.

There will be a demonstration in Lützerath on the weekend after the court decision.

Only a few buildings remain here and climate activists have been living in tents, caravans and abandoned houses for months.

The Hambach Forest became famous as "Hambi" during the protests, Lützerath is now called "Lützi".

As in the Hambach Forest, activists have built some tree houses.

The resettlement of the local residents was officially completed years ago.

more on the subject

Assistance and motivation: this belongs in an emergency folder for personal provision

Rendsburg transporter bridge is running again

Man beheaded: suspect should be in psychiatric hospital

Lawsuits against the assignment of land, as expropriations are called in mining law, and the transfer of possession in the main proceedings are still pending at the administrative court in Aachen.

Expropriations, such as in the case of motorway construction or in the dispute over Lützerath in opencast mining, are always possible if the public good is affirmed.

This applies to the Garzweiler II opencast mine because of the supply of lignite to the energy market.

According to agreements between the federal and state governments to phase out coal, it should be used until at least 2035.

dpa