“Every day counts, it’s 2023 and we don’t have another village to lose,” climate activist Luisa Neubauer wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. Alliances from all over Germany – including “Fridays For Future”, Ende Gelände, Last Generation and also All Villages Stay – are currently mobilizing for the preservation of the village in North Rhine-Westphalia. “It’s getting serious – day X has come, Lützerath needs us all,” it said in a joint appeal.
The village is of great importance for climate protectors, and has been for some time: the 1.5 degree limit runs in front of Lützerath, they say. In order to be able to meet the 1.5-degree target of the Paris climate protection agreement, coal mining there must end, the argument goes. For North Rhine-Westphalia’s state government, however, there is no way around clearing the place.
Cleared barricades, felled trees
According to the authorities, the place should be cleared from mid-January – but it could go faster. Preparations for this have been in full swing since the beginning of the week. “Since Monday, the police and RWE have been active around the town with a large contingent, barricades have already been cleared and trees felled. The police have not yet entered the town itself; but they are pulling together forces all around and building infrastructure, ”reported the alliance All Villages Remain on ORF.at request on Wednesday.
Specifically, Lützerath is to make way for the expansion of the large Garzweiler lignite opencast mine. According to the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the coal under Lützerath is needed in view of the energy crisis. It is about the security of supply in the region.
Coal for security of supply?
Last autumn, the energy group RWE agreed with the Green-led economics ministries in the federal government and in North Rhine-Westphalia to end lignite-fired power generation by 2030 instead of 2038. At the same time, the term of two lignite-fired power plants, which were to be shut down at the end of the year, was extended to the end of March extended in 2024. State Minister Mona Neubaur stated that the agreement would save five other villages in the Rhenish lignite mining area from destruction. The Greens form the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia together with the CDU.
The climate activist Neubauer, however, reproached the Greens for not actually needing the coal lying under Lützerath. According to Neubauer on Twitter, the Greens were taken in by false numbers from the “notoriously unbelievable coal company” RWE. For example, expert reports by the CoalExit Research Group and the German Institute for Economic Research recently came to the conclusion that energy supply during the crisis would also be possible without the coal under Lützerath.
“RWE plans to mine a further 280 million tons of lignite from the Garzweiler opencast mine. With these emissions alone, Germany would fall short of its contribution to complying with the 1.5-degree limit,” said Alle Villages Bleiben when asked. “We cannot stand idly by while another village is demolished in the 21st century to extract coal. That is why we call on all people to resolutely and peacefully stand in the way of the destruction of Lützerath.”
Concern about escalation is growing
On Sunday, the activists invite you to a large public village walk, on January 14 a large protest demonstration is planned. Neubaur, who is also Deputy Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, appealed to peacefulness in the run-up to the actions. The police also called on the activists to “distance from crime” and “behave peacefully”.
Stephan Muckel, the CDU mayor of the city of Erkelenz (to which Lützerath belongs), already feared problems. He has respect for everyone who “demonstrates peacefully, colorfully and creatively”. However, the pictures from Monday gave him “no good suspicions” in the event of an eviction. It is currently unclear whether there could be clashes between the police and activists.
Remembering the clearing of the Hambach Forest
In any case, memories of the clearing of the Hambach Forest 20 kilometers away are waking up in Germany these days: the forest was cleared in autumn 2018 in one of the largest police operations in North Rhine-Westphalian history. Dozens of tree houses were destroyed. Finally, the federal government, the states and energy companies agreed that the forest should be preserved. The activists of the anti-coal alliance Ende Gelände described this as a success of civil disobedience. Incidentally, the Greens were still on the side of the activists at the time.
Lützerath has now replaced the Hambach Forest as a symbol of the protest against coal-fired power generation. Many activists have been living in the village for some time – tree houses, tents and banners adorn the townscape. The original inhabitants have now completely left the settlement as a result of the first resettlements in 2006. The last farmer in the village, Eckhardt Heukamp, gave up last April after a tough legal battle with RWE.
Greens should harm debate
A fate similar to that of Lützerath had befallen many other villages in the region in the past. Tens of thousands of people across Germany have already had to leave their homes because of the coal. The topic had already caused heated spirits in the course of the German federal elections in 2021 – ORF.at reported on the scene at the time.
The Greens, who now – unlike before – sit on the government bench both in the federal government and in the state, are unlikely to get away unscathed, as a “tagesschau” report says: “How much the coming events will damage the Greens is likely depend on how fiercely the resistance of the occupiers in Lützerath is and whether scenes like those in the Hambach Forest recur in front of running cameras.”
