Conflict erupted on Monday outside a community in western Germany over a move to demolish the community to make room for the expansion of a coal mine, a plan that is being opposed by environmentalists.
Before things settled down and the police withdrew, protesters hurled fireworks, bottles, and stones at them outside the village of Luetzerath, according to a report from the German news agency dpa.
Protesters had previously set up a burning barricade, and one of them glued his hand to the access road.
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Despite objections from environmentalists who worry that millions more tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide will be spewed into the sky, the hamlet is to be destroyed to enlarge the Garzweiler lignite mine.
Activists have been residing in homes that prior occupants have abandoned.
People are not allowed in Luetzerath, according to a directive from the Heinsberg county administration, and police are allowed to clear the village starting on January 10 if they don’t comply. A non-violent end to the activists’ occupation has been demanded by authorities.
Energy company RWE and the federal and regional governments, which both include the Green party, reached an agreement in October 2022 to move the region’s coal use phaseout forward by eight years, to 2030.
However, the agreement also stipulates that Luetzerath will be demolished to make room for more mining and that the life of two power plant units that were supposed to be shut down earlier will be extended until at least 2024 amid worries about Germany’s energy security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Story was adapted from VOA.
