Several thousand demonstrators gathered behind the young climate activist to denounce the extension of a coal mine.
SourceAFP
© HENNING KAISER / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
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UA procession of thousands of demonstrators led by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched on Saturday towards the Lützerath camp, on the edge of a huge open-pit coal mine in western Germany, whose extension they denounce. . Environmental activists arrived from all over Germany and Europe beat the countryside of the Rhine basin and sing to the sound of a brass band, noted journalists from Agence France-Presse.
In colorful jackets and raincoats to protect themselves from the pouring rain, they hold up signs displaying “Stop coal”, “Lützerath lives”. At the head of the long procession which takes place through muddy fields, the climate activist Greta Thunberg, hat and hood on her head, dressed in a black anorak. The demonstrators converge on Lützerath from the north and west, in support of the handful of diehards who oppose the evacuation operation carried out by the police in the hamlet, located on the edge of the mine.READ ALSO In Europe, the nuclear “comeback”Crossing the neighboring town of Keyenberg (west), the demonstrators are encouraged by residents at windows and in the streets. “The demonstration must remain peaceful”, defends one of them, saying he is happy to see so many participants. He came to support the environmental movement in front of his childhood home. Some scuffles however broke out at the beginning of the afternoon between demonstrators and the police who are trying to move them away from the hamlet of Lützerath surrounded by fences, according to AFP journalists.
The organizers were counting on the participation of tens of thousands of demonstrators. The police expect 8,000 people. Inside the camp still occupied by a handful of activists, the police resumed dismantling and evacuation work, already very advanced, on Saturday. Between 20 and 40 activists were still there on Friday evening, according to a spokeswoman for their movement to AFP. Trees were felled, many huts built high up by the activists were emptied of their occupants, the latter being escorted to the exit of the site.
470 occupants evacuated
The old village, located in the Rhine basin, between Düsseldorf and Cologne, must disappear to allow the extension of a huge open-pit lignite mine, one of the largest in Europe, operated by the German energy company RWE. Slogan of the demonstrators: “Prevent the evacuation! “, even if the hours of the Lützerath camp now seem numbered. The evacuation operation, which began this week, mobilized police reinforcements from all over Germany and has so far taken place without significant incident.
READ ALSO“Serious environmentalists know that it takes a minimum of nuclear to decarbonize” Eleven police officers were injured, including two with work stoppages. A few criminal charges have been filed for resisting law enforcement and damaging property. Since the beginning of the evacuation, the relief workers have brought out around 470 activists from the occupied hamlet, reports the German press quoting the police.
Activists in a tunnel
Two activists took refuge in an underground tunnel, ready to “chain themselves to concrete blocks to delay the evacuation”, according to a press release from the movement. “Our tunnel is safe, only negligent police action can put us in danger here,” said one of the activists inside. Various civil disobedience operations in support of the movement have been reported across Germany over the past few days.
In Berlin on Friday, hooded activists set fire to trash cans and painted slogans on the facade of Greens offices. The political party is part of the government coalition of Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, accused by activists of having betrayed them by signing a compromise with RWE, allowing the destruction of Lützerath, whose inhabitants were expropriated several years ago.
READ ALSOGermany postpones closure of some nuclear power plantsThe government considers the extension of the mine necessary for Germany’s energy security, which must compensate for the interruption of Russian gas supplies, a compelling reason disputed by opponents, according to whom lignite reserves are sufficient.