Almost every day, initiatives and activists in the Rhenish lignite mining area speak up about the little spot of Lützerath. They absolutely want to prevent clearing for the coal underneath. The police have so far received no request for an operation.
Aachen (dpa / lnw) – The police are not imminent to clear the location of Lützerath, which is occupied by activists, at the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine. So far, the official and enforcement requests required for an operation have not been received, said Aachen’s police chief Dirk Weinspach of the German Press Agency. He referred to the long preparation time and duration of such a police operation. This should be completed by the end of the clearing season on February 28th. In the event of an eviction, climate protectionists have announced demonstrations and resistance. The police expect a costly, personnel-intensive operation.
At the beginning of October, the green-led economics ministries in the federal government and North Rhine-Westphalia agreed with the energy company RWE to phase out coal in the Rhenish Revier by 2030. Five largely abandoned villages at the opencast mine are to be preserved and Lützerath is to be dredged for coal extraction. Local activists want to prevent that.
Weinspach said that after the political decision between the ministries and RWE, the responsible department for mining and energy in the Arnsberg district government was on the move to implement the agreement and issue the basic notifications that were required for a police operation. “We are in the second row,” said the head of the police headquarters responsible for an eviction. “We will only start planning a concrete operation when court-proof basic decisions are available, on the basis of which appropriate enforcement assistance requests are addressed to us”.
The lawyer also emphasized that a mission like that in the Hambach Forest should not be repeated. At that time there was a lack of sufficient planning time and a court-proof basis. In the largest police operation in the history of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2018, police officers were on duty for weeks. At the beginning of the eviction, however, a lawsuit was still pending at the Münster Higher Administrative Court. The decision came a few weeks later: the judges ordered a temporary freeze on clearing. The forest, which was originally intended to give way to open-pit mining, remained standing.
Around 100 activists who want to “fight” for the place are staying in the houses of Lützerath, whose former residents have long since moved away. They live in a kind of camp in tree houses, huts, tents and in the squats of the former residents. There were multiple police operations there, for example because of stone throwing in the direction of the excavators. The rural district of the city of Erkelenz is now right on the edge of the Garzweiler opencast mine.
Police communications officers have been on site in the Rhenish lignite mining area for years. They are the contact for all actors and have defused conflict situations on several occasions. “They are our first and best resource,” said Weinspach. Should there be an eviction, the police would be very keen on a peaceful and non-violent process.
