Status: 01/11/2023 12:14 p.m
The police continue to ask everyone to leave Lützerath. Otherwise, the activists face criminal charges. Some followed the request. According to the police, stones and pyrotechnics were sometimes thrown.
The police have been clearing the lignite town of Lützerath, which is occupied by climate activists, since the morning. “The area is fenced off,” wrote the Aachen police on Twitter. According to a police spokesman, the situation had stabilized by noon. The emergency services cordoned off the entire area, and no one could enter without authorization, it said. The police are now active on the entire site, and people can only move around the area to a limited extent, if at all.
Some activists, however, remained stubborn. “People are determined to persevere, to protect the trees and the buildings,” said Mara Sauer, a spokeswoman for the “Lützerath Lives” initiative. With barricades, among other things, attempts are still being made to hinder the operation. Some barricades were concreted in. The police have started to remove these with the necessary equipment. Individual activists accompany the scenes with guitar and piano music.
Police threaten criminal charges
The police officers have not yet entered the occupied houses, reports WDR-Reporter Henry Bischoff. According to their own statements, climate activists have also blocked access to the Garzweiler opencast mine near Jackerath. Overall, the operation could take weeks according to initial assessments by the police.
According to media reports, the local police have set deadlines for the demonstrators. “Who wants to leave the place now? Anyone who stays has to expect a criminal complaint,” said a police officer to activists like him WDR reported. There is now one last possibility to leave the place voluntarily. Otherwise, “you have to expect immediate coercion,” said the dpa news agency in a police announcement.
The Aachen police had previously tweeted that it was still possible to “leave the place without further police action”. The first activists followed the request and left voluntarily. They were escorted off the premises by police officers.
“Individual activists have already been carried away by the police”, Marion Kerstholt, WDR, on the evacuation of Lützerath
tagesschau24 09:00 a.m., 11.1.2023
stones and pyrotechnics
According to the Aachen police, there were also violent clashes: stones and pyrotechnics were thrown in the direction of the emergency services and more projectiles were found. “Stop throwing Molotov cocktails immediately,” she wrote on Twitter. There she appealed to behave peacefully and to follow the instructions of the emergency services. So far there is no information about injuries.
According to police estimates, there are around 300 to 400 activists in town. Ten to 15 percent are potentially violent, like Marion Kerstholt, WDR, reported on site. According to the police, there should also be small children in Lützerath. “Due to far-reaching dangers in the operational area, the #Police #Aachen appeals to the legal guardians to leave the area immediately with their children,” she wrote on Twitter.
Court confirms residence ban again
In the meantime, the administrative court in Aachen has confirmed the legality of the decree in two summary proceedings, which is intended to clear the hamlet for lignite mining. The climate protectors have again failed in court with urgent applications against the ban on residence and entry. (AZ.: 6 L 16/23 and 6 L 17/23).
The energy company RWE meanwhile announced that it would start with the “dismantling” of the town of Lützerath. “As one of the first measures, a construction fence a good one and a half kilometers long will be erected for safety reasons,” the group said. “It marks the company’s own construction site, where the remaining buildings, ancillary facilities, roads and canals of the former settlement will be dismantled over the next few weeks. Trees and bushes will also be removed.”
Home minister worried about police safety
Sirens and alarm bells had previously been heard in the occupied area. Some activists climbed onto tall monopods and tripods – which are trunks tied together with platforms. They were erected in the past few days to make it as difficult as possible for the police to get to the activists. In the early morning, the local police had strengthened the contingent.
The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of the Interior, Herbert Reul, previously expressed concern for the safety of the police in the “Rheinische Post”: “We have a certain proportion of violent activists in Lützerath.” Their number currently fluctuates daily. Therefore, such an operation is always dangerous for the police. “We don’t know what the police officers can expect in the houses in Lützerath,” explained Reul. It is not known whether there are traps or other barricades that cannot be seen from the outside.
Police: One of the most challenging missions
According to Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach, the evacuation of the protest village is one of the most challenging operations in recent years. The operation should be carried out as de-escalating as possible, Weinspach said at an information event on Tuesday evening. The Aachen police receives support from all over Germany.
Climate activists have been living in empty houses in Lützerath for months. 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.