Germany plans to clear the village of Lützerath out of the way of the coal mine. Protesters have been protesting the plans for several days.
Jussi Nurminen,
Elsa Osipova
16:17•Updated 19:53
About 70 police officers have been injured in the demonstrations defending the German village of Lützerath, the police said on Sunday. The village is supposed to be cleared to make way for the expansion of the coal mine.
According to the organizers of the demonstrations, dozens of demonstrators have also been injured.
During the last few days, the police have removed the protesters camped in the village. On Saturday, thousands gathered to demonstrate for the village and some of the demonstrators clashed with the police.
Some of the police officers’ injuries were caused by the difficult conditions in removing those camped in the village. Some were injured during Saturday’s demonstration.
According to the organizers, about 35,000 people participated in Saturday’s demonstration. According to the police, there were 15,000 demonstrators.
Greta Thunberg was carried away
On Sunday, the police carried a Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg away from a protest against the expansion of a lignite mine in Lützerath.
The incident was reported by a German Bild magazine (you switch to another service), according to which Thunberg refused to leave the scene at the police’s command. After this, two policemen carried him away. According to Bild, Thunberg finally left on foot to a neighboring village.
Thunberg already participated in the protest organized in the area on Saturday and returned today.
The police said on Sunday that they had cleared the destructive village of almost all the protesters. According to the police, only two protesters who hid in the tunnel would be left in the village.
Lützerath is a deserted village
The residents of Lützerath have moved out of the village a long time ago, because the expansion of the nearby coal mine on the site of the village has been planned for a long time.
In Germany, similar villages have been destroyed on the way to coal mines before.
More than the fate of the village, however, emotions are heated by the chancellor By Olaf Scholz the government’s turncoat trick.
Members of the German Green Party have registered their opposition to the expansion of the mine.
Nevertheless, the vice-chancellor and the minister of economy and climate protection and the chairman of the Green Party Robert Habeck has supported the decision to expand coal mining.
In addition, tensions between the German government and climate activists reached their peak after the government announced in June that it plans to increase coal production.
At the time, the German government justified its decision with the decrease in Russian gas supplies.
At the same time, the German government has promised to abandon the use of fossil fuels by the end of the decade. Lignite power plants are scheduled to be closed by 2030.
The current protests are reminiscent of the protests that started in 2013 in the Hambach forest.
Activists who lived in trees for years delayed RWE’s mining project. In 2020, the German government decided that the quarry in the old forest would not be expanded.
Sources: AFP, AP, STT