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Alarm in Lützerath: police begin evacuation in the occupied lignite village
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The evacuation of Lützerath has begun. With strong forces, the police are advancing into the lignite village occupied by climate activists. The deployment could drag on for weeks.
The Aachen police, together with emergency services from all over North Rhine-Westphalia, have started to clear the village of Lützerath, which is occupied by activists. It can take weeks for the officials to remove all the climate demonstrators from the site, said Aachen’s police chief Dirk Weinspach the previous evening and spoke of one of the most challenging operations in recent years.
Lützerath is a district of the 43,000-inhabitant town of Erkelenz in western North Rhine-Westphalia. The hamlet, located in the middle of fields, is now located directly on the edge of the Garzweiler lignite opencast mine. The coal underneath is to be mined to generate electricity.
The premises and buildings in Lützerath have long belonged to the RWE energy group
The economics ministries led by the Greens in the federal and state governments of North Rhine-Westphalia have agreed with the energy company RWE to phase out coal by 2030. In addition, five already largely empty villages at the Garzweiler opencast mine in the vicinity of Lützerath are to be preserved. The small town of Lützerath on the edge of the opencast mine can be excavated. The premises and houses have long belonged to RWE. The legal disputes have finally been resolved.
Due to the current energy crisis, power generation from lignite for the European power grid has recently been expanded again. In the Rhineland, there are two other lignite mines in Hambach and Inden.