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Police: Two activists holed up in a tunnel – accusation of police violence after an escalated large demo
Violent clashes between thousands of demonstrators and the police after a demo against the demolition of the brown coal village of Lützerat.
© Source: IMAGO/Jochen Tack
In Lützerath, the conflict over the settlement consisting of a few abandoned houses at the lignite opencast mine in North Rhine-Westphalia is coming to a head. Here we report on all developments.
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Live ticker on the situation in Lützerath
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Coal from Lützerath: What is the conflict about?
According to estimates, 1.3 billion tons of lignite lie below Lützerath. The energy company RWE wants to reduce this. The proponents’ argument: Abandoning the enormous coal deposits would endanger Germany’s energy security. The opponents of mining refer to the Paris climate agreement and the 1.5 degree target. From their point of view, mining lignite would contradict Germany’s climate goals, and they also accuse RWE of lobbying with “demonstrably wrong” figures. In a study, researchers from the Coal Exit Research Group came to the conclusion that the coal under Lützerath was not needed to ensure security of supply.
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You can read more about the background to the conflict here:
How violent will the eviction be?
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. Stones, firecrackers and bottles were thrown at the police several times. The atmosphere on site is heated, the tone towards the police is sometimes aggressive.
The German Police Union (DPolG) expects strong resistance from the activists. A solution with communicative means is “very unrealistic,” said the DPolG state chairman of North Rhine-Westphalia, Erich Rettinghaus, the editorial network Germany (RND). His worst scenario: “The best thing would be if we had to carry people away.”
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Where is Lutzerath?
Lützerath is a so-called hamlet, which is assigned to the city of Erkelenz in North Rhine-Westphalia. Erkelenz is northwest of Cologne, Mönchengladbach is just under half an hour away. Coming from Erkelenz, Lützerath can be reached by car in around 20 minutes.
A map of Lützerath and the Garzweiler opencast mine.
© Source: Graphic: A. Brühl, Editor: B. Schaller / dpa
How many people live in Lützerath?
Ever since it became known that the settlement would have to make way for lignite mining, the former residents of Lützerath have gradually left the area. The last one went about four months ago. Shortly after the expansion of the opencast mine was decided in 2005, the first resettlement measures began.
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As can be seen from a PDF on the city’s website, ten people lived in the Lützerath mini-settlement at the last count in March 2022. This does not include the approximately 200 climate activists who have moved into abandoned houses and set up protest camps since the summer of 2020.
All buildings and land belong to the energy group RWE. And all lawsuits against demolition have been dismissed by courts. The responsible district of Heinsberg has forbidden the stay in Lützerath. On this basis, the evacuation can now be carried out by the police. More than 1,000 officials are said to be deployed every day.
RND/pf/kb