Lützerath eviction: climate activist Neubauer is carried away by the police - a police officer is injured

Created: 2023-01-12Updated: 2023-01-12 7:02 PM

By: Fabian Mueller

Environmental activist Luisa Neubauer is carried away by police officers during a sit-in in Lützerath.

© Federico Gambarini/dpa

During the protests in Lützerath, there were clashes between activists and the police.

A police officer was injured in the leg.

The news ticker.

Lützerath - Climate activist Luisa Neubauer was carried away by police officers from the access road to the lignite town of Lützerath during the course of the Lützerath clearance.

Neubauer had gathered there on Thursday (January 12) with around 100 activists for a sit-in.

The participants in the Lützerath occupation were surrounded by the police and gradually carried away or taken away.

Finally, three officers also carried Fridays for Future activist Neubauer away with their multi-purpose sticks.

Lützerath eviction: activist Luisa Neubauer is carried away by police officers

"We want to stay here until we are carried away," Neubauer had previously told the dpa news agency during the eviction in Lützerath.

A police spokesman explained the current development of the Lützerath occupation that the participants were on their way to the edge of the opencast mine.

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

According to Neubauer, the police occasionally used pepper spray against activists during the protest in Lützerath.

The spokesman said he could neither confirm nor rule it out.

A total of several hundred people took part in a demonstration march from the village of Keyenberg in the direction of Lützerath, about four kilometers away.

Eviction in Lützerath: Police officer injured in demo use of firecrackers

Meanwhile, a policewoman was slightly injured by a firecracker on Thursday.

The officer was hit in the leg, but was able to remain on duty, said a police spokesman about what happened as a result of the evacuation in Lützerath.

"Please refrain from any throwing at the emergency services - this is not a peaceful protest!

We will consistently report every attack!” wrote the police, who probably used RWE trucks for the evacuation in Lützerath, on Twitter for use against the protests in Lützerath, in which climate activists even embed themselves in concrete.

Why should Lützerath be evacuated?

Below the village of Lützerath, which belongs to the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Erkelenz, there are large lignite deposits.

In 1995 the region was approved as a mining field.

Originally, around 100 residents lived in the village, most of whom sold their houses and properties many years ago or were compensated.

The land now belongs to the energy supplier RWE.

The group has earmarked the area for the Garzweiler opencast mine.

The residents of Lützerath have been resettled since 2006, and demolition work has been underway in the town since 2020.

On Friday, during the clearing of the Rhenish lignite town of Lützerath, the symbolic houses of the former residents should come into focus.

So far, excavators have only leveled the activists' wooden huts and barricades.

However, the houses in Lützerath have not yet been demolished.

Video: Eviction in Lützerath continues: Storm causes activists to create

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Lützerath currently: Activists must give up the occupation of the symbolic Duisserner Hof

On Thursday morning, the squatters had to give up the symbolic Duisserner Hof as a result of the Lützrath evacuation.

The building had become a powerful symbol of resistance to the Garzweiler lignite opencast mine: the owner had resisted expropriation to the last and had become known as the "last farmer from Lützerath".

The evacuation also began in a second building, the so-called Paulahof with a rainbow flag painted on the facade.

The residents who got in left the place years ago.

The Lützerath buildings are now owned by the energy company RWE, which intends to mine the lignite beneath the site to generate electricity.

(dpa/fmü)