Status: 09.01.2023 10:28 a.m
After the first clashes in Lützerath, the police are concerned about the coming days and weeks. Because the clearing of the village occupied by climate activists could begin soon. Several thousand people protested on Sunday.
The Aachen police are “worried” about the coming days and weeks, when the clearing of the village of Lützerath, which is occupied by climate activists, could begin. “It will be a challenging mission with many risks,” said police chief Dirk Weinspach WDR.
“Escalated again, not a good sign”
In the past week, the Lützerath protests have remained mostly peaceful – but on Sunday it “escalated again for the first time”. Among other things, stones were flown. “That’s not a good sign at first,” said Weinspach. “I hope that won’t happen again next week.”
Larger protests against the demolition of the village and the announced evacuation by the police began in the village of Lützerath on Sunday. Several thousand people took part in a village walk, there was a church service and a concert. After the performance of the band AnnenMayKantereit, there were clashes with emergency services, the police reported. Demonstrators would have stormed an event area.
The activists in Lützerath are a “mixed scene,” Weinspach said WDR. Mostly she is “bourgeois and peacefully oriented”. A small proportion are ready to commit violent crimes. “At least that’s how it was in the past.”
Reul: “We have no choice”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) said in the common morning magazine ARD and ZDF, he hopes that “the whole thing” will not “as always” degenerate into a debate as to whether the police had to do it. “We have no choice. If we don’t want conditions like in other states – that people take to the streets wildly, that unrest arises – then rules must also be observed,” he said.
“Most of those demonstrating there are reasonable people who have a real concern,” said Reul. But there is a great risk that the conflicts will be dominated by minorities. “A compromise should now be implemented,” emphasized Reul. The police have no choice but to clear the place, which consists of only three houses. It’s about a “tiny unit”.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Economics Minister, Mona Neubaur, said she could not accept violence. “Anyone who threatens or even injures emergency services crosses a line,” emphasized the Green politician. She asked “everyone involved in and around Lützerath to behave peacefully and not to turn the escalation screw,” said the Green politician.
Climate movement wants to stop eviction for weeks
Climate activist Luisa Neubauer had previously said that politicians had not expected so much resistance to the demolition of the village. “You can tell that the power in this place was apparently underestimated,” she said in Lützerath. “Here, a society shows that it understands that everything is at stake. The village here is overrun with people who have come from all over the country.”
Lützerath before the eviction – How are the “rescued” villages doing?
David Zajonz, Alice Tschöke, WDR, daily topics 11:20 p.m., January 8, 2023
The energy company RWE wants to demolish Lützerath in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia in order to mine the coal underneath. The land and houses of the village, which is characterized by agriculture, now belong to RWE. However, activists who have announced resistance now live in the remaining premises, whose former residents have moved away. Therefore, there will probably soon be a major police operation to clear Lützerath.
Last year, the black-green state government of North Rhine-Westphalia reached an agreement with the energy company RWE: the phase-out of coal in NRW is to be brought forward to 2030, several villages on the edge of the Garzweiler opencast mine, which should actually be excavated, can remain. However, Lützerath is not one of them.