Interior Minister wants to expel climate protesters from Lützerath - but the city is opposed

Created: 02/12/2022 17:28

By: Peter Seven

Around 150 people are currently protesting in Lützerath against the demolition by RWE.

© David Young/dpa

RWE wants to get to the lignite under the village of Lützerath.

Climate protesters announce massive resistance.

The police are preparing - but an administrative detail slows everyone down.

Cologne – It sounded so easy.

With a "total operation", NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) wants to clear the opencast mining village of Lützerath, which is occupied by activists, in January.

More than 150 protesters are currently camping there to protest against opencast lignite mining in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Reul's plan: remove squatters, remove barricades, demolish houses, clear trees.

All in one go, so to speak.

The preparations are already in full swing, and the Cologne district president has long since been asked to issue an eviction order.

"Only then do the police come into play, namely when the city of Erkelenz asks for enforcement assistance," says Reul.

Only: It won't be that easy after all.

Because the city of Erkelenz refuses to do that.

RWE opencast mine near Lützerath: City of Erkelenz "fundamentally against opencast mining"

"Basically, the city of Erkelenz is against opencast mining," said a city spokeswoman on request.

Erkelenz is losing valuable areas of the urban area and is trying to preserve every square meter.

The decision to phase out coal in 2030 has created clarity about the preservation of the five villages of Keyenberg, Kuckum, Ober- and Unterwestrich and Berverath.

But the city does not want to clear and clear Lützerath, because: "The areas are privately owned by RWE AG." In the opinion of the city of Erkelenz, the mining use should be set in motion by those who made the decision to do so.

That is why the district government of Cologne should now step in and ask the Aachen police for enforcement.

A dry bureaucratic act, but it is necessary so that the officials can become active in the eviction.

Actually, the process should have already started, but so far there is no such paper from the Aachen police.

"The request for enforcement assistance is not yet available," says Aachen police spokesman Andreas Müller on request.

Parallels to the Hambach Forest – but protesters are “more middle-class”

They are already preparing there, the NRW Ministry of the Interior speaks of a "complex police operation".

As far as the resistance structures are concerned, one expects parallels to the Hambach Forest, where activists occupied for months.

“Tree houses were also erected in Lützerath.

There are also barricades and ditches that are intended to make evacuation more difficult," says Müller.

But you don't have to expect escalations like back then, because: "Compared to the situation in the Hambach Forest, we see a difference in the composition of the protest groups.

In Lützerath, the groups are much more middle-class.” The communications officers are already in constant contact with the local activists and citizens' groups.

"Anyone who attacks Lützerath will pay a high price"

But: "Of course we can't look into the future and don't know what potential there is for mobilization." Interior Minister Herbert Reul doesn't believe that Lützerath will become a symbol similar to the Hambach Forest.

According to the ministry, the clever ones in climate policy have long since understood that they would have gained a lot by saving the forest and phasing out coal earlier.

An abandoned hamlet like Lützerath does not have this meaning.

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On the other hand, there are announcements such as those of the “Ende Gelände” action alliance, which recently promised massive resistance in pithy words: “We will fight for Lützerath like we defended the Hambach Forest.

Anyone who attacks Lützerath will pay a high price," it said.

RWE opencast mine near Lützerath: "Civil disobedience is not legal"

“We take that seriously.

We have also had corresponding experiences in recent years when the activists in painter's suits have entered the opencast mine," says Andreas Müller from the Aachen police.

It is basically the task of the police to protect the peaceful protest.

But: “The concept of civil disobedience expresses the motive of political dissatisfaction.

In the past, however, attempts were also made to legitimize criminal offenses.

Also violent crimes.” 

In principle, civil disobedience is not legal, but always a violation of the law, Müller clarifies.

"It can only play a role when the sentence is passed in court, when the judge sees: Okay, the person did not commit the crime to specifically harm someone.

For us as the police, however, it is first of all a crime that we have to pursue.

We have no room for maneuver there,” says Müller.

Irrespective of the security policy discussion surrounding Lützerath, a team of scientists recently came to the conclusion in a study that the coal under the town is not needed at all to bridge the current energy crisis.

However, in addition to the coal, RWE also needs enormous amounts of earth in order to fill in and recultivate residual pits elsewhere, as contractually stipulated.

The open-cast mining holes are often to be turned into lake landscapes, such as in Hambach, where the second largest lake in Germany will be created.