Lützerath: Pinky and Brain give up – politics

The news comes around noon: Pinky and Brain have voluntarily left the self-dug tunnel in the village of Lützerath. “A thousand thanks for your life-threatening efforts against lignite and capitalism,” it says on the Twitter channel Action sticker Lützerath. Pinky and Brain, whose real names are not known, had barricaded themselves in the tunnel for days in protest against the fact that the electricity supplier RWE wants to mine lignite under the settlement that was abandoned six years ago. The police had expelled the other demonstrators and squatters by Sunday, only the duo in the tunnel held out – and then gave up on Monday.

The negotiations with Pinky and Brain were not conducted by the police, but by RWE – supported by the Swiss consulting firm Schranner Negotiation Institute. Its founder Matthias Schranner was trained, among other things, by the FBI to negotiate with hostage-takers. The Technical Relief Agency and experts from the fire brigade were also involved, shared the Essen group with. In the end, the two activists “voluntarily ended their life-threatening situation after intensive discussions” and left the settlement.

The company did not want to force these last protesters out of the tunnel because it would have been dangerous for both of them and also for the rescue workers. Instead, RWE secured the tunnel to prevent an accident. Among other things, the structure of a building above it was reinforced, the company reported. The car battery, which the activists used to drive a pump that supplied them with fresh air, was also recharged. Fortunately, the protesters dug the tunnel in stable loess soil, a spokesman said.

For RWE it was not the first experience with climate protection in tunnels. As early as 2012, an activist dug himself deep into the Hambach Forest to prevent the forest from being cleared for open-cast lignite mining.

The company is looking for duds

About a hundred residents used to live in Lützerath, who were resettled in 2017. Most of the buildings have already been demolished. Trees with their roots and pipes also have to go. Then the area is searched with metal detectors for duds from the Second World War. Only then will the two lignite excavators 258 and 261 start digging up the area. That could happen in March or April, a spokesman said.

First, the 65 and 70 meter high excavators will remove earth until they reach the first seam, i.e. a layer of lignite. It is transported away on conveyor belts and burned in the nearby RWE power plants in Neurath and Niederaussem. Since Lützerath is right on the edge of the Garzweiler mine, the company does not have to install new conveyor belts that the existing ones will do.

The end of Lützerath was sealed in October as part of an agreement between RWE and the federal and state governments. According to this, the group will shut down the climate-damaging lignite-fired power plants as early as 2030 and not only in 2038, as originally planned. But RWE does not want to do without the seams under the cleared settlement.


source site