The night in Lützerath was largely quiet, but the evacuation continues. In addition to the police, the activists in the occupied lignite town are also struggling with a storm.
In Lützerath, workers have started demolishing a former agricultural hall. A dpa reporter reported that two excavators were in use. An outer wall was removed in a short time.
The energy company RWE had announced in the morning an “orderly dismantling” in the areas in Lützerath released by the police.
However, massive buildings will probably not be affected by demolition work so quickly because there are still people there. Already on Wednesday, a first tree house was dismantled and trees felled. This work continued on the second day of the evacuation.
Eviction continues
In the morning, emergency services entered a homestead, as reported by a dpa reporter. They sawed a hole in a gate and gained access through it. A large yellow banner hangs on the farmstead with the inscription “1.5°C means: Lützerath stays!”. Some activists who were inside were taken away. A little later, the police drove a lifting platform to the courtyard of the homestead. “The eviction continues,” said a police spokesman.
The eviction had begun the day before, and a large contingent of police was deployed. The settlement is to be demolished in order to be able to mine the coal deposits below. Climate activists want to prevent this.
The night was mostly quiet
During the first night after the evacuation began, it was largely quiet. There were no special incidents, said a police spokesman in the morning. “During the day, the clearance work will continue,” he emphasized.
A dpa reporter on site also reported a largely quiet night. Once on Wednesday evening some firecrackers were thrown and fireworks rockets were ignited from an occupied building, nobody was injured. Meanwhile, not far away, the police took a group of climate activists off a warehouse roof.
Elsewhere, police spent several hours overnight rescuing an activist from a wrecked car that had been set up to obstruct a path. The woman had entrenched herself in the wreck and cemented her feet in the path. She was retrieved early in the morning.
The bad weather made things difficult for the remaining activists: there was constant rain and strong winds. “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 said. Climate activists continue to hold out in the tree houses and squatted buildings. How many there are is unclear. The spokeswoman did not provide any information.
The village in the Rhenish Revier is now completely surrounded by a double fence. The fence is almost finished, only the gates are still missing, said a spokesman for the energy company RWE on Thursday morning. The gates should be hung during the day. On Wednesday, RWE began erecting the approximately two-meter-high construction to mark the town as a company site. Unauthorized persons should be prevented from entering the locality.
As soon as the police have declared individual areas to be cleared, excavators should start with the “orderly dismantling” – i.e. the demolition. “We don’t know when that will be,” said the RWE spokesman. “Safety for everyone involved is our top priority.”
Nationwide demonstrations planned
The alliance “Lützerath unräumbar” announced protest actions such as sit-ins in the area for Thursday. Fridays for Future wanted to demonstrate nationwide on the second day of the eviction. An appearance by Luisa Neubauer was planned in Keyenberg, a district of Erkelenz four kilometers from Lützerath.
Before the start of the eviction on Wednesday, massive resistance was expected. On the other hand, observers spoke of a relaxed atmosphere on the first day. At the start of the evacuation, however, there were also scuffles. According to the police, a Molotov cocktail, stones and pyrotechnics were thrown in the direction of the officers. A spokeswoman for the “Lützerath Leben” initiative accused the police of being too tough.
Police defend their actions
Aachen’s police chief Dirk Weinspach meanwhile defended the actions of the police. The strategy has borne fruit and communication has succeeded in persuading over 200 demonstrators to leave the site voluntarily, Weinspach said on Thursday on ZDF’s “Morgenmagazin”. Some situations during the evacuation could be defuse by talking to each other. It is always good to rely on the word as the first resource. “We will continue to do so,” said Weinspach.
At the same time, the chief of police spoke of violence on the part of the activists on Wednesday, which was not decisive. The violent scene is in the minority. The number of those who are willing to commit violent crimes is in the “lower double-digit range”.