Brawls at environmental protest with Greta Thunberg in Lützerath

Police and groups of protesters clashed on Saturday (14.01.2023) during a rally against the expansion of an open pit coal mine in Lützerath, in western Germany. On the sidelines of the demonstration, which counted, as had been announced, with the participation of the young Swedish ecologist Greta Thunberg and brought together several thousand people (35,000, according to the organizers), hundreds of anti-coal militants tried to enter the coal mine land, something that had been expressly prohibited.

‘Police barriers were broken. To the people in front of Lützerath:’Get out of this area immediately!“, the police tweeted. Previously, there had already been clashes between groups of protesters and law enforcement, at which fireworks and stones were thrown.

In the television pictures, a row of police officers in riot gearWearing helmets and shields, they protected the edges of the moat, tens of meters deep, which the protesters were approaching.

Security forces also protected access to municipality of Lutzerath, closed with bars and occupied by several dozen activists who had been being evacuated by the security forces for several days. The march was organized in support of the activists occupying the small abandoned town, and was symbolically led by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Protest in Germany / Photo: AFP

“Science says it clearly: coal must stay underground, we must stop the destruction of our planet,” said the activist. “The coal is still in the ground, we’re still here, Lützerath still exists, and as long as the coal remains underground, this fight will not be over. We are not going to give up,” he said. “It is a shame that the German government reaches agreements and compromises with companies like RWE,” Thunberg declared from a rostrum.

Greta Thunberg at the protest in Lützerath, Germany / Photo: AFP

In a speech before thousands of activists in this town, whose definitive eviction began last Wednesday in order to make way for the increase in the extraction of coal from the Garzweiler II mineThunberg criticized that human lives are sacrificed “for the benefit of a few incredibly rich people” and wondered how it is possible that in 2023 it will continue on “a path that leads to nowhere”.

“That you are here is a sign of hope”he affirmed when addressing the activists, to whom he said that today they are demonstrating that the changes do not come from the government, consortiums and leaders, but from the people who protest in the street and in wooden houses in the trees (referring to the entrenched activists in Lützerath).