Deep in the Lützerath dilemma: climate activists write off the Greens – “We let RWE dictate our goals”
Created: 01/10/2023 17:53
By: Florian Naumann
The Greens started out as an environmental party.
There is now a huge crunch between them and the climate movement.
Lützerath activists express their disappointment.
Lützerath/Berlin – The Greens present themselves as the state-supporting party: the party has already given up some old foundations around the Ukraine war – or had to give up for coalition reasons.
Nuclear power plant lifetime extension, loud calls for arms deliveries, expensive gas purchases by Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck in Qatar of all places.
All of this would have been unthinkable in the past.
In the polls, the former pacifism and eco-party didn't do any serious damage.
The most recently measured 17 to 20 percent are above the 2021 election result. But in the 2023 election year there is a risk of further conflicts with one's own political legacy.
A current example: Green leader Omid Nouripour defended the eviction in Lützerath on Tuesday (January 10).
Climate activists are fiercely critical of this at
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
The Greens' very own clientele goes on the barricades.
On Tuesday, an alliance dumped lignite for the Düsseldorf party headquarters - and described the Greens as a "coal party".
“Putting up climate protection posters in the election campaign.
Make a pact with RWE after the election!” read the banners.
Greens defend Lützerath compromise - activists: "A joke"
The current stumbling block: In the Rhineland, the energy company RWE wants to demolish the village of Lützerath - it has already bought the buildings and land, the place is deserted.
At least by its former inhabitants.
Climate activists have occupied the village and also built tree houses.
They want to prevent the eviction, but above all the planned coal mining.
Nouripour explicitly did not support this in the ZDF "Morgenmagazin".
The dismantling is part of a "compromise" that he can "wear really well".
The deal saved five villages from eviction and enabled the coal phase-out to be brought forward to 2030.
This does not appease climate activists at all.
A spokesman for the "Lützerath Leben" initiative rejected Nouripour's account in the strongest possible terms at the request of
Merkur.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
- and accused the Greens of having their position "dictated" by RWE.
"The role of the Greens at this moment is to sell the population a greenwashing deal," said activist Florian Özcan.
Greens under pressure because of Lützerath: "Just wanted to fulfill RWE's interests and save face"
"The so-called compromise that Mr. Nouripour is talking about is a greenwashing deal with RWE," emphasized Özcan.
As a result, just as much CO2 would be emitted as if coal were to be phased out in 2038. However, the Greens had not even formulated their own goals and figures.
To speak of a compromise is therefore "a joke": "Right from the start, the Greens only wanted to fulfill RWE's interests and save their own face." That's why the party is now talking about saved villages instead of coal and CO2 -Emission.
"In doing so, they are burning our livelihood," Özcan reprimanded.
In any case, the climate protectors in Lützerath no longer want to rely on the Greens.
There is dissatisfaction with the decisions "both within the Greens, but also, for example, in the left".
"We know that we are not alone," said the "Lützerath is alive" spokesman.
But extra-parliamentary initiatives are now decisive, he indicated.
also read
Putin's last hope?
Why Russia Hardly Uses Its 'Most Advanced' Fighter Jet
TO READ
Partially already 89 percent burned?
Ukraine wants access to Putin's missile arsenal
TO READ
Crisis summit in the Vatican: Pope Francis meets Benedict's confidante Gänswein
TO READ
Putin spokesman sees NATO "involved" in Ukraine war - Armenia gives Russia a low blow
TO READ
Baerbock surprisingly in eastern Ukraine: Arrival under the highest secrecy
TO READ
Fancy a voyage of discovery?
My space
"The Greens have the role of showing people that governments will not change anything and will not stop the climate catastrophe, but that we all have to take it into our own hands and work to make things happen," said Özcan.
A new social debate is needed: "What counts for us is the support of the people." For the Greens, as the former mouthpiece of the environmental and climate movement, this is definitely a worrying signal.
Especially since it is not the only problem of this kind: a dispute, sometimes encroaching, is also raging over road construction in Frankfurt's Fechenheimer Forest - of all things in the year of the Hesse elections.
In both cases, the Greens refer not least to the legal situation.
The NRW Energy Minister Mona Neubaur, who was particularly taken by the climate protectors, explained several times: "The Lützerath site is owned by RWE, the courts have decided in the last instance and must be accepted in a constitutional state." In Frankfurt, the Greens consider the legal process to be " exhausted”, as the
taz
reported.
In Hesse, the party, as part of black-green, repeatedly comes into conflict with the eco-vote.
Lützerath before eviction: first fisticuffs – police see mostly “bourgeois”
Meanwhile, in Lützerath, the evacuation is approaching.
The police removed barricades on the access area on Tuesday, which outraged climate activists.
The police appealed over loudspeakers: “Do not attack the police forces!
If you attack the police, you can be liable to prosecution!” Occasionally there were physical attacks.
In several rows, activists braced themselves against the emergency services.
According to the responsible Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach, the activists in Lützerath are a "mixed scene" that is predominantly "bourgeois and peacefully oriented".
However, a small proportion are willing to commit violent crimes.
Lützerath: Coal mining in the Ukraine war urgently needed?
Opinions contradict each other
One argument in favor of clearing and mining the coal under Lützerath is the current energy crisis.
It is clear to everyone that the coal under Lützerath is needed to ensure security of supply, said NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) to the
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
.
Özcan sees it differently: According to reports, there is enough coal in the existing Garzweiler and Hambach opencast mines to cover demand by 2030 – even with the currently increased demand, he said.
According to a report by the ARD “Tagesschau”, this question is “statement against statement”.
An expertise commissioned by the "Europe Beyond Coal" campaign sees sufficient resources in Garzweiler and Hambach.
Three reports by the North Rhine-Westphalia government claim the opposite.
According to the report, one reason for this is the different calculations of coal requirements beyond electricity generation.
One analysis completely ignored this area.
The estimates of the other side take this into account according to the "Tagesschau" - but according to the assessment of the environmental association BUND in NRW to a "completely unrealistic" extent.
(
fn
)
