The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Eviction continues: demonstrators can no longer get through

2023-01-12T12:56:15.196Z


Eviction continues: demonstrators can no longer get through Created: 2023-01-12Updated: 2023-01-12 13:48 Demolition work on the wooden huts of the activists in Lützerath, which is occupied by climate activists. © Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa In wet, cold weather and strong winds, climate activists are still holding out in tree houses, huts and squats in Lützerath. But the police are making surprisingly


Eviction continues: demonstrators can no longer get through

Created: 2023-01-12Updated: 2023-01-12 13:48

Demolition work on the wooden huts of the activists in Lützerath, which is occupied by climate activists.

© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

In wet, cold weather and strong winds, climate activists are still holding out in tree houses, huts and squats in Lützerath.

But the police are making surprisingly quick progress, and climate activists are frustrated.

Demonstrations in their favor are taking place nearby.

Erkelenz - On the second day of the evacuation of Lützerath, the police gained access to the largest yard in the lignite town and got numerous activists out.

Elsewhere, tree felling and demolition work by RWE continued.

The town belongs to the energy company.

He wants to remove the buildings in order to get to the coal deposits under Lützerath.

Activists want to prevent this for fear of serious consequences for the climate from burning coal.

Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer was also among the demonstrators on Thursday.

On the political stage, the evacuation of Lützerath continues to put the Greens to the test.

According to the police, around 800 people gathered about four kilometers away to express their criticism of the Lützerath evacuation.

The demonstration train started in Keyenberg, another district of Erkelenz, and then went in the direction of Lützerath.

Neubauer, who was among the participants, accused the police of disproportionate action.

She complained that the police continued the evacuation in the dark and into the night, which was dangerous and incomprehensible.

However, the demonstrators did not make it as far as Lützerath.

A group of them was surrounded on an access road to the lignite town, including Neubauer and Greenpeace board member Martin Kaiser.

The demonstrators, who were sitting blocking the way, were surrounded by police officers.

"We want to stay here until we are carried away," said Neubauer of the German Press Agency.

A police spokesman said the participants were on their way to the open pit demolition edge.

This was dangerous and had to be prevented by the police.

According to Neubauer, the police had occasionally used pepper spray against activists.

The police spokesman said he could neither confirm nor rule this out.

The town is now surrounded by a one-and-a-half kilometer long double fence that RWE had built at lightning speed.

This should mark the company premises to which unauthorized persons would not have access, said a company spokesman.

Two excavators began demolishing a former agricultural shed on Thursday.

Thursday night was largely peaceful.

Police pulled activists from the roof of a warehouse and a woman cemented with her feet in the ground from a wrecked car.

Elsewhere sat two women, each with an arm cemented in a barrel.

In the window of a hut, a note could be read that said "Caution stuck on".

In fact, someone had taped their hands to the glass pane from the inside, as seen from the outside.

With such actions, people wanted to set an example and slow down the eviction.

A climate activist holding out in a tree house posted a video on Twitter Thursday afternoon expressing disappointment at the tree-cutting efforts.

"It is bitter, bitter, bitter that trees are being felled during the climate crisis so that lignite can be burned, which is destroying the planet." They will continue to fight to ensure that Lützerath is "unclearable".

From time to time, during the night and in the morning, the activists threw firecrackers and set off fireworks, but no one was injured.

An officer was hit by a paint bag.

The stormy and rainy weather made things difficult for the activists.

"We hope that the storm won't get any stronger," said a spokeswoman for the "Lützerath Lives" initiative on Thursday morning.

The situation is dangerous for the people in the tree houses.

"Normally they come down in a storm." She did not say how many activists are still in Lützerath.

also read

Lützerath eviction: Neubauer demonstrates with 800 activists - police apparently use pepper spray

TO READ

Climate activists are attacked by passers-by - and reap "deepest respect" for their reaction

TO READ

Climate activists in Cologne: bloody affair - policeman tears hand from climate adhesive from the asphalt

TO READ

Death in the classroom: 17-year-old is said to have stabbed a teacher – students apparently alerted the police themselves

TO READ

BMW driver runs over woman – for her any help comes too late

TO READ

Fancy a journey of discovery?

My space

For the Greens, the eviction is becoming more and more of a burden: the eco-party is involved in the governing coalition both at federal level and in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Last year, two Greens, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck and NRW Minister of Economics Mona Neubaur, presented an agreement with RWE that paved the way for coal mining under Lützerath and, in return, brought forward the coal phase-out in NRW by eight years to 2030.

For this deal, the leadership of the Greens had to listen to sharp criticism from climate activists, but also from their own ranks.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Environment Minister Oliver Krischer expressed his regret about the eviction in "WDR 5".

"This is a difficult time, the environment minister sleeps badly because it hurts me," said the Green.

He understands that young people in particular are dissatisfied with the pace of climate protection and are demanding more effort.

At the same time, the Greens defended the agreement with RWE as "good" because it "writes the last chapter in the coal phase-out in North Rhine-Westphalia".

The Greens member of the Bundestag Nyke Slawik expressed criticism.

"I've become estranged," she wrote on Twitter.

"Estranged from how some are defending the eviction in Lützerath and the deal with RWE."

It is unclear how long the evacuation of Lützerath will last.

Originally, observers had expected several weeks, but given the swift action of the police, it could be over faster than initially thought.

dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-01-12

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.