Germans protest against coal mines
2023.01.15 01:16
Budrigannews.com – According to a police estimate, approximately 6,000 protesters, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, marched through rain and mud to the German village of Luetzerath on Saturday to oppose the expansion of an opencast lignite mine.
In a deal that allowed the energy giant to demolish Lutzerath in exchange for its faster exit from coal and the saving of five villages that were originally scheduled for destruction, RWE and the government agreed to clear the village in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Thunberg said on a podium, “This is a betrayal of present and future generations… Germany is one of the biggest polluters in the world and needs to be held accountable,” as she marched with a cardboard sign that said “Luetzi stays” in German, which is the village’s abbreviated name.
Police in riot gear confronted the protesters as they approached the village, some of whom used batons to push them back.
On Twitter, the regional police claimed that they had used force to prevent people from breaking through barriers and getting close to the danger zone at the excavation area’s edge.
In an effort to halt the expansion of the nearby mine, police evacuated protesters from buildings they had occupied for nearly two years earlier this week.
Only a few people were still camped out underground in treehouses and a tunnel on Saturday, but thousands of people showed up to protest the mine, which activists say is a symbol of Berlin’s failing climate policy.
On Saturday, the president of North Rhine-Westphalia stated to German radio station Deutschlandfunk that although energy politics were “not always pretty,” the need for coal was greater than ever given the energy crisis facing Europe’s largest economy.
On Friday, Economy Minister Robert Habeck stated to Spiegel that Lutzerath was the “wrong symbol” against which to protest.
“It is the last place where brown coal will be mined; it is not a symbol for more of the same, but for the last frontier,” the statement reads.
However, activists have stated that Germany should concentrate on expanding renewable energy rather than mining lignite.
