Actually, she was only expected for a large demonstration on Saturday on the edge of the Rhenish lignite opencast mine – but climate activist Greta Thunberg was already in Lützerath today. There, the Swede called for resistance to the digging up of the hamlet by the energy giant RWE. “When governments and corporations destroy the environment (…), people fight back,” she said.
Thunberg also sharply criticized the actions of the police when clearing the Rhenish village. “It’s outrageous how the police violence is,” said Thunberg. The 20-year-old also toured the open-pit lignite mine’s crater, holding up a sign that read, “Keep it in the ground.”
Thunberg, who founded the “Fridays for Future” movement, emphasized that she had been observing the situation in the town on the edge of the North Rhine-Westphalian opencast lignite mine for a long time.
She will also take part in a demonstration to preserve Lützerath on Saturday, she confirmed. The village is currently being cleared by the police of climate activists who had occupied houses there. “Fight for survival,” said Thunberg. “Lützi stays!” She chanted with demonstrators.
Two climate activists are still waiting in a tunnel in Lützerath – according to the police, special forces from the fire brigade and THW are needed to get them out.
Police are trying to contact activists in the tunnel
“I just think it’s terrible what dangers these people take on themselves,” said Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach on Friday after climbing a little way into the tunnel shaft. The construction is not safe, the oxygen supply is not guaranteed in the long term, said Weinspach. However, he assumes that there is currently no acute danger for the two people. He didn’t know if they were chained.
“Contact officials are trying to get in touch and speak to those concerned right now,” he said. Their communication with the telephone no longer works, they are now trying to use radios. On Friday night, the Technical Relief Agency ended its mission without getting the activists out of the tunnel.
The occupiers of the place had reported on a tunnel on social networks on Thursday and warned the police not to drive into the area with heavy equipment. The “Lützi Stays” movement previously released a YouTube video showing two activists in a tunnel they say is under the village.
“We’re in the Lützerather tunnel,” they say. They would have barricaded themselves down there to hinder the evacuation of the village. “It’s harder to clear a tunnel than a tree house.”
We cleared almost all houses except for one.
Dirk Weinspach, Chief of Police Aachen
Since Wednesday, the police have been clearing the town of Lützerath, which is occupied by climate activists, on the edge of the Rhenish opencast lignite mine. It is to be demolished for coal mining. Police officers began clearing the last building on Friday. Only a few of the originally several hundred climate activists are staying in the place who are resisting the eviction.
During the night, the climate activists endured heavy rain, strong winds and temperatures below ten degrees. On Thursday, numerous wooden huts and barricades belonging to the activists were razed to the ground by excavators. During the evacuation, the squatters usually allowed themselves to be carried away without much resistance. Some were close to tears.
Overall, the chief of police was satisfied with the progress of the operation. “The clearing of the above-ground structures is largely complete,” said Weinspach on WDR. “We cleared almost all the houses except for one. The meadow has been cleared, most of the tree houses have been cleared. In this respect, there is not that much left.”
An excavator began demolishing central buildings on Friday. Among them is the home of farmer Eckardt Heukamp. A yellow banner with the inscription “1.5 °C means: Lützerath stays!” was hanging in a hall next to it, which was visible from afar. This hall hasn’t been standing since Friday afternoon. The Heukamp-Hof had been seen in the background of many protest actions for years and had a correspondingly high symbolic value.
Activists chain themselves to the RWE headquarters in Essen
In protest against the evacuation of the village of Lützerath for lignite mining, around 25 to 30 climate activists occupied the entrance to the headquarters of the energy company RWE in Essen on Friday. According to an activist spokesman, three of them chained themselves to a roller shutter with bicycle locks. They carried signs with inscriptions such as “Lützi stays” and “Lützerath moratorium”.
The town of Lützerath, which belongs to Erkelenz in the Rhineland, is currently being cleared and demolished by the police so that RWE can excavate the coal underneath. The action is to be continued in Essen until the evacuation of Lützerath is stopped, said the spokesman, who in his own words belongs to the “Last Generation” group.
RWE has been manipulating the German public and politicians for many years with false numbers, most recently again with the question of whether the coal lying under Lützerath is really necessary to maintain the energy supply. An RWE spokesman declined to comment on the action.
A spokesman for the Essen police said that the action currently makes it impossible to pass through the entrance. The activists sprayed the words “Lützerath stays” on the floor. A house wall was also sprayed. In this context, the police are investigating the suspicion of property damage. In addition, they are investigating whether there has been a violation of the right to assembly, since the demonstration had not been registered.
200 hooded demolish shop windows in Berlin
On the night of Friday, more than a hundred hooded criminals are said to have rioted in Berlin-Mitte in protest against the eviction and smashed shop windows. They set fire to garbage cans and fired pyrotechnics at a police station, the police said. There was talk of more than 200 rioters moving through the streets around Hackescher Markt.
According to the Berlin police, the first masked people began to set garbage cans on fire around 1:15 a.m. After the group had grown significantly, they moved on. The perpetrators, who are believed to be from the left-wing extremist scene, damaged the shop windows of at least 26 shops with cobblestones and Christmas tree balls filled with paint.
They also daubed facades and windows with slogans related to Lützerath. According to the police, the police station on Brunnenstrasse was also attacked with pyrotechnics during the night and two Green Party offices were smeared with slogans. The police used a helicopter to search for the perpetrators.
Large demo on Saturday can take place with restrictions
The large demonstration planned for Saturday in the lignite area in Lützerath can take place with restrictions after a court decision. This was decided by the Aachen administrative court and communicated on Friday.
The police had demanded from the meeting management of “Climate Justice Movement DE” that the starting point of the demo north of the Erkelenz district of Keyenberg be relocated at 10.30 a.m. In addition, the police prohibited the carrying of ten tractors. The organizer appealed against these requirements before the administrative court in Aachen and was partly successful. An appeal against the decision is possible at the Higher Administrative Court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster.
In the summary proceedings, the court confirmed the police’s view of tractors. In the large demo with an expected 8000 participants, the large agricultural equipment is a danger for the demonstration train.
When moving the demo, the court did not share the view of the police. They said they “didn’t make the imminent danger sufficiently credible”. A feared backlog of those arriving on the motorway could be counteracted by “traffic-directing police measures” and by instructions to the leaders of the meeting.
After decisions by the Aachen Administrative Court on vigils against the dredging, complaints against this decision were received by the OVG in Münster on Friday. In the lower court, the relocation of the vigil requested by the authorities was classified as permissible. Reason: A residence and entry ban has been in effect for the Lützerath settlement since Tuesday.
The new locations specified by the police within sight of the former location of Lützerath are proportionate and respect the right to demonstrate. In addition, RWE, as the owner of the land, is against holding demonstrations on his private property.
Since there is still no reason for the complaint, it is still unclear when the Higher Administrative Court will decide, a spokeswoman told the dpa on Friday.
Reul calls on Greta Thunberg to de-escalate
As Greta Thunberg announced during her visit to Lützerath on Friday, she will also take part in the demonstration. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) called on the Swede to de-escalate. “In NRW, everyone is allowed to demonstrate, including Ms. Thunberg, who is traveling from afar,” Reul told the “Bild” newspaper, according to a statement on Friday.
“I hope she makes sure her fellow campaigners stay peaceful and stick to the rules.” Thunberg announced her visit on Saturday near Lützerath on Twitter to defend the former village against the threat of excavation of the coal below.
Against the background of the sometimes violent protests against the police, the CSU criticized Thunberg’s arrival. Stefan Müller, parliamentary director of the CSU state group in the Bundestag, pointed out that the activist was driving to Lützerath, although police officers there were being attacked with stones and fireworks.
“With her visit, Thunberg knowingly makes common with these criminals,” he said “Bild”. In Kreyenberg in the Rhineland, which, like the neighboring town of Lützerath, belongs to the city of Erkelenz, a broad protest alliance is expecting more than ten thousand demonstrators on Saturday. The initiatives All Villages Remain, Fridays for Future and BUND, among others, are involved. (dpa/AFP/Reuters)