Police on Tuesday began dismantling barricades and dragged away activists staging a sit-in protest against the expansion of an opencast lignite mine that has highlighted tensions over Germany's climate policy during an energy crisis.
The demonstrators, many wearing masks or balaclavas, have been protesting against the Garzweiler mine, run by energy firm RWE in the abandoned village of Luetzerath and is part of the brown-coal district of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
They have formed human chains, staged sit-in protests and occupied deserted buildings in Luetzerath which will be razed to make way for the mine's expansion. Some dug themselves into holes in the ground while others hung suspended from wooden tripods.
"You consider this a peaceful eviction? It is ridiculous what you are doing, how are you not embarrassed?" said one protester as police dragged away activists who were sitting on a muddy track.
The protests highlight growing tensions over Berlin's climate policy, which environmentalists say took a back seat during the energy crisis that hit Europe last year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, forcing a return to dirtier fuels.
It is particularly sensitive for the Greens party, now back in power as part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government after 16 years in opposition between 2005-2021.
Many Greens oppose the mine's expansion, but Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens party has fronted the government's decision. Some activists dumped 250 kg (551 lb) worth of coal blocks in front of a local Greens party headquarters, German media reported.
Police urged protesters to avoid violence and exercise restraint, saying that some activists had began to attack officers and thrown rocks in recent days.
"We have barricades that are currently being expanded in the village in particular to represent obstacles to us," Chief Operations Officer Wilhelm Sauer said on Monday.
The protest follows a regional court decision on Monday that upheld an earlier ruling to vacate the village whose land and houses now belong to RWE.
Some of the activists have built treehouses in Luetzerath, believing these would make it harder for police to force them to leave. The move echoes a similar protest in 2013 in the Hambach forest, which delayed an RWE coal mining project for years and became a symbol of anti-coal demonstrations.
"Yes, it is of course infuriating to see that the police are already starting to clear the area and to use violence," another climate activist said.
"We cannot rely on politics. Because at the end of the day, it's up to us to use our bodies to stop the police from clearing Luetzerath."
The fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Scholz’s government to change course on previous policies.
Those include firing up mothballed coal power plants and extending the lifespan of nuclear power stations after Russia cut gas deliveries to Europe in an energy standoff that sent prices soaring.
The government has, however, brought forward the date when all brown coal power plants will be shut down in North Rhine-Westphalia, to 2030 from 2038, acceding to a campaign promise from the Greens.
The Garzweiler mine extracts around 25 million tonnes of lignite every year, according to RWE. The company has said it supports both energy transition and a temporary increase in the use of lignite-fired plants to tide Germany through the energy crisis.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa, Andy Kranz, Stephane Nitschke, Petra Wischgoll; Writing by Riham Alkousaa and Matthias Williams; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Grant McCool)
