The resistance in Lüzerath continues three days after the start of their eviction
Two of the last environmentalists to oppose the demolition of a town in Germany for the expansion of an open-cast coal mine are resisting underground. Police today acknowledged that two young environmental activists have made a stand in a gallery dug four meters deep under the town of Lüzerath, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, while the rest of the demonstrators in an evacuation operation that began last Wednesday. Several attempts to force the two ‘miners’ to escape from their confinement and surface have failed so far. The German THW technical emergency service, which specializes in rescues in difficult places, gave up and this morning suspended an operation to get the two activists to stop their attitude.
“They are currently the biggest challenge” in the eviction operation, acknowledged a police spokesman, who stressed that the form of protest of the two activists carries risks, as the stability of the excavated gallery is unknown and whether the oxygen supply is sufficient. The two activists are in permanent contact with the police, who have sent them radio transmitters to facilitate communication. A spokeswoman for the ‘Lüzerath lives’ movement, the organization of the protests to prevent the destruction of the small town, assured that the two youths acted consciously and are ready to resist at least until next Saturday, when the celebration of a major environmental demonstration against open coal mining in the region in which Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg will take part, who made a short surprise visit to the already half-demolished city on Friday.
The young Swedish woman went to Lüzerath accompanied by Luisa Neubauer, leader of the German youth movement ‘Fridays for Future’, with whom she was able to walk among the ruins of the city. In front of the television cameras of numerous chains, he displayed a sign that read ‘Keep it in the ground’ and posed at the edge of the huge open-air excavation. “When governments and corporations destroy the environment, people plant resistance. Tomorrow we will meet again to show our support to the activists.” After admitting that the police eviction operation has proceeded faster than expected, the spokesperson of the movement “Lüzerath lives” warned that there will be a clear response to the evacuation of the town by climate activists.
“They are taking the city from us, we are taking the opencast mine from them,” the spokeswoman said, later noting that police forces are unwilling to arrest the thousands of people expected to take part in tomorrow’s demonstration if they decide to invade “Europe’s biggest dirt hole” en masse, referring to the country where the energy company RWE extracts coal. Meanwhile, another small group of participants in the protest against the demolition of Lützerath, no more than 20 people, also resisted on the roof of the last occupied house and on several buildings built on trees that are under siege by the riot police. At the same time, several bulldozers proceed to demolish the remaining buildings and the temporary structures erected by the protesters to leave the city devastated as soon as possible. However, there is no demolition activity near the hole that leads to the underground gallery in which the two young men have fortified themselves for fear of causing landslides or landslides that could threaten their lives.
More than 1,000 riot police officers took part in the three-day operation to clear the town, which until a year ago was home to 19 people and was empty at the start of the protests. So far, some 400 activists have been expelled, most after voluntarily giving up their stance, although some were forcibly removed. The Interior Minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, expressed the hope that the young Greta Thunberg would contribute to de-escalating the situation in Lüzerath and around the Garzweiler opencast mine. “In North Rhine-Westphalia everyone is allowed to demonstrate, including Mrs Thunberg who has come from abroad. I hope he sees the activists remain peaceful and abide by the rules,” Reul said.
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 members of the Greens have demanded an end to the expulsion operation in an open letter addressed to their fellow believers Mona Neubauer, Minister of Economic Affairs in the Düsseldorf government, and Robert Habeck, head of the same portfolio. in the federal executive branch. Entitled “Don’t betray fundamental green values: Lüzerath must be preserved”, it emphasizes that “the agreement reached with the energy company RWE in the autumn threatens to destroy the foundations of our party”, referring to the pact the consortium has signed with governments. of Berlin and Düsseldorf to demolish Lüzerath and dig the coal out of the underground in exchange for saving five other cities in the region and bringing forward the end of mining operations to 2030, eight years ahead of schedule. The letter’s signatories accuse the two politicians of “attacking the Paris climate agreement and the agreement of the tripartite government in Berlin”, and of losing “the last confidence of the climate justice movement”.
Source: La Verdad
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
