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Lützerath: Tensed mood before eviction – police expect a long protest

Lützerath: Tensed mood before eviction – police expect a long protest

The evacuation of the small town of Lützerath is imminent. Aachen’s chief of police expects a period of up to four weeks. Police forces from all over Germany will be involved.

In Lützerath the mood is heated. The police have started to surround the village occupied by climate activists in the Rhenish lignite mining area for the planned evacuation. As the responsible police headquarters in Aachen wrote on Twitter, the change in the location of Lützerath began on Wednesday morning. The Aachen police chief had previously told the Berlin-Brandenburg broadcaster radioeins that the evacuation operation was imminent.

On Wednesday morning, sirens and alarm bells rang through the occupied location. “We think it’s about to start because a lot of police cars have driven here,” said a spokeswoman for the activists. “A never-ending chain of police cars drives through the mine,” said the telegram channel “Lützerath Lebt! Infokanal”.

Eviction by police can take up to four weeks

According to Aachen’s chief of police, Dirk Weinspach, the forthcoming evacuation of the protest village is one of the most challenging operations in recent years. The police receive support from all over Germany. “We are planning up to four weeks, but we hope it won’t take that long,” said Weinspach on Tuesday evening.

Lützerath is a district of the 43,000-inhabitant town in the west of 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.

At an information event about the use in Erkelenz on Tuesday evening, among the around 300 participants, mainly representatives of local climate protection initiatives, who strictly reject opencast mining, reported. They called for a moratorium in view of the imminent start of the evacuation and questioned the reports on which the use of the site for opencast lignite mining is based. Residents in neighboring villages complained about police helicopters flying close to their houses. The appearance of a private security service was also criticized.

NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul: “I’m always concerned about the safety of our officials”

North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) was concerned about the safety of the emergency services in advance. “We have a certain proportion of violent activists in Lützerath. Their number is currently fluctuating every day,” Reul told the “Rheinische Post”. “Therefore, such an operation is always dangerous for the police, and I’m also constantly concerned about the safety of our officers.” However, the emergency services are well trained and trained. The police are well prepared in terms of logistics and personnel.

He explained: “We don’t know what the police officers are expecting in the houses in Lützerath. Are there traps or other barricades that we don’t see from the outside? We also don’t know how many people stand in the way of the emergency services will.” Reul added: “Caution is the order of the day these days.”

Lützerather premises and buildings belong to RWE

Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt called for a peaceful protest. This should not be “delegitimized by thoughtless actions,” she told the editorial network Germany (RND). At the same time, she defended the persistence of climate activists. “Branding the protesters in Lützerath or on the streets as crazy, turning them into criminals is unacceptable.”

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 settled.

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.

Note: The article will be continuously updated with new information.

Source: Stern

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