Status: 08.01.2023 8:44 p.m
Several thousand people took part in Lützerath in the first major protests against the planned evacuation of the opencast coal mine. According to the police, the first clashes broke out after a concert.
Larger protests against the demolition of the Drofe and the announced evacuation by the police have begun in the village of Lützerath. 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 allegedly clashes with the police, they reported. Stones were also thrown, demonstrators stormed an event area. One person was briefly taken into custody. There was initially no confirmation of the incidents from other sources.
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,” said 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.
Towards evening the situation calmed down, reported a reporter from the WDR. Many demonstrators went back home. How many wanted to spend the night in Lützerath is difficult to say, as it is pitch black in town.
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
Lützerath is now located directly on the edge of the RWE Garzweiler opencast mine. The original residents have left the site. Climate activists have moved in and want to delay an evacuation of the village for as long as possible. “We hope that we can hold Lützerath for six weeks,” says Dina Hamid, spokeswoman for the Lützerath Lives initiative. Pictures taken by photographers at the scene show protesters also erecting new barricades along paths.
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.