Tension rises in German ‘coal village’: evacuation of Lützerath near

AFP

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:12

The German police are announcing today what will happen next week in the village of Lützerath, in the German Ruhr area. The place, not far from Roermond, may be demolished by the court for the construction of a mine of energy group RWE. That company wants to start mining lignite under Lützerath.

The village has been occupied by activists for more than two years in order to prevent the construction of the mine. There are only a few houses left and the original inhabitants have long since been bought out by RWE, which also owns the village. According to the company, coal extraction is necessary for energy supply. Germany is still very dependent on coal, especially now that Russian gas is being supplied considerably less due to the war in Ukraine.

The police will probably start evacuating the village on Tuesday, so activists from Germany and the surrounding area will head there. Yesterday, according to the German police, there were about 2,000 demonstrators. Dutch demonstrators have also joined the protest. A Dutch organizer expects about fifty Dutch people to travel by bus later this week.

AFP

Activists at the mine near Lützerath

“The area has become a kind of Grand Canyon,” says Frits ter Kuile of action group Christian Climate Action in NOS Met het Oog op Morgen. He will also travel to Lützerath next week. “It’s a very nice, sweet little village. It’s saying ‘hello’ to coal mining and the further rise in the temperature of the earth and our way of life.”

RWE’s huge machines have swallowed up many more villages in recent years. The company says it has supply contracts and therefore has to extract the coal. In a few years, in 2030, RWE will stop coal mining in Germany. But until then, the energy group may start extracting coal in Lützerath, as agreed with the German government.

According to him, Ter Kuile is also traveling to Lützerath to “throw a bit of sand in the enormous machinery that is eating up the earth”. The fact that there is an energy crisis right now is of secondary importance to him.

“We have to look for a way in which the children who will be born in 100, 1000 or 100,000 years’ time can also have a beautiful life on a living earth. That is not possible with an economy that literally eats up the earth.” He thinks it should be less. “Less energy, less raw materials, less everything.”

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