Five days after the start of the evacuation of Lützerath, two remaining climate activists left an underground tunnel under the settlement. The end of the former village on the edge of the Garzweiler brown coal mine in western North Rhine-Westphalia is imminent.
Both the energy company RWE and a spokeswoman for the activist initiative "Lützerath Lebt" announced on Monday that the eviction had ended. According to its own statements, RWE wants to complete the "dismantling" of Lützerath in the coming days.
The two activists in the underground tunnel, which they apparently built themselves, were believed to be the last occupants of the village, which is to be dredged to extract coal. Other activists had already left the settlement in the days before or had been taken away by the police. At first it was not foreseeable how long it would take to bring the activists in the tunnel out into the open. The RWE plant fire brigade took over the action described as "rescue". On Monday, everything suddenly happened quite quickly.
leave the tunnel voluntarily
In the end, the two activists left voluntarily, explained RWE. One was "relieved" that the "life-threatening situation" had ended in this way. "A rescue from the tunnel against the announced resistance of the people would have been associated with high risks, also for the rescue workers," it said. Experts were brought in to convince the two to get out of the tunnel themselves.
The Lützerath activists also said on Twitter that the two people had left the tunnel "themselves". "A thousand thanks for your life-threatening action against lignite
It is still unclear how long the two had stayed in the tunnel. A video of two masked people on the YouTube platform had caused a stir since Thursday. "Pinky" and "Brain" stated that they were in a tunnel under Lützerath. The tunnel is a very effective form of defense against eviction, they argued. It is much more difficult to clear a tunnel than a tree house, for example.
"Deconstruction" should be completed in the next few days
According to RWE, the two left Lützerath "as the last activists". The police clearance has ended. The dismantling of the former settlement will be completed "in the coming days".
The spokeswoman for "Lützerath Lebt" also said: "Of course, this means for us that this eviction, which we have been able to observe for the last few days, is over for the time being." Although you may have lost against the "massive police presence," you have also gained a lot. Lützerath is now known throughout Germany.
Elsewhere in the Rhenish lignite mining area, the protests against coal-fired power generation initially continued. In the morning, eight activists occupied a lignite excavator in the Hambach opencast mine, 20 kilometers from Lützerath. As a result, the device had to temporarily cease operation. However, the protest action ended after just a few hours. The eight squatters left the excavator voluntarily on Monday afternoon, RWE reported.
A good four kilometers as the crow flies from Lützerath, five climate activists - including two in wheelchairs - abseiled down from a motorway bridge on Monday morning. Traffic on Autobahn 44 continued during the action, but nothing worked on the country road under the bridge. According to the police, this action was also over by noon.
The village, a district of Erkelenz west of Cologne, has been cordoned off by the police for days and is surrounded by a double fence. The few buildings in the settlement will be demolished to enable the energy company RWE to excavate the lignite underneath. However, resistance had formed against the demolition and the planned excavation of the coal.
