According to the organizers, a demonstration against the disappearance of the Lützerath site dedicated to the extension of a coal mine gathered 35,000 people. Clashes broke out with the police.
The tension goes up a notch in Lützerath. Incidents opposed anti-coal demonstrators and police on Saturday during a large rally of several thousand people in western Germany. The police deplore that protective barriers have been broken down near the huge open-pit coal mine.
It is in support of the anti-coal activists who occupy this abandoned hamlet that the demonstration was organized. The Lützerath site, 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.
“Police barriers have been broken. To people in front of Lützerath: Get out of this area immediately,” tweeted police, who also reported protesters trespassing at the mine site.
Earlier, AFP journalists witnessed scuffles between groups of demonstrators and police targeted by pyrotechnic fire. Media even reported stone throwing.
A reporter from the French news agency saw a protester injured in the head as ambulance sirens sounded at the scene of the protest, which was difficult to contain as it dispersed in small groups across the muddy fields surrounding the mine.
According to the organizers, the demonstration, in the presence of the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, gathered some 35,000 people.
“Berlin must be accountable!” chanted the environmental activist in front of the crowd.
“It’s a bit study against study”
On television images, a row of police in riot gear, helmets and equipped with shields, protected the edges of the pit from the deep mine of several tens of meters which the demonstrators approached.
“Some people have entered the mine. Move away from the danger zone immediately!” Police tweeted.
The security forces also protected access to the hamlet of Lützerath, closed by gates and occupied by several dozen activists being evacuated by the security forces for several days.
Earlier in the day, our BFMTV correspondent Violette Bonnebas explained that “all of Germany had its eyes riveted on this little hamlet of Lützerath”.
“Across the Rhine, Lützerath has become the symbol of the fight against coal mining which is, as we know, one of the causes of climate change,” said the journalist.
While the owner of the mine has received the green light from the authorities and the courts to destroy the hamlet, climate defenders do not hear it that way. In particular, zadists have settled on the spot.
“The government says that there is simply no choice, that the exploitation of the Lützerath subsoil, rich in coal, is essential to deal with the current energy crisis”, relayed Violette Bonnebas.
However, many scientists say the opposite. “It’s a bit study against study,” noted our correspondent.
