German police continued Wednesday to clear an anti-coal activist camp in an abandoned city that has become a symbol of the country’s struggle to transition away from fossil fuels amid an energy crisis.
After numbering up to 2,000, around 200 anti-coal activists remain in the western German village of Luetzerath, which is scheduled to be demolished to make way for the neighboring Garzweiler coal mine.
Hundreds of police tightened the perimeter around the protest camp before sunrise to prevent anyone from entering.
They moved at 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) to the sound of an alarm set off by protesters, who warned that the next stage of forced evacuation had begun.
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“They took the aid team out of the camp by force,” Mara Sauer, a spokeswoman for the activists, told AFP. “Only a few can hide.”
Wrapped in makeshift blankets to ward off the cold, some were still clinging to trees and other buildings built far away from the police.
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Others have climbed to the top of abandoned buildings and barns, where they used loudspeakers to lead chants against the police along with songs of encouragement for fellow activists.
– The cleaning operation can take up to a week –
Despite a tweet from police asking protesters to “stop and stop throwing Molotov cocktails”, the activists’ resistance was largely peaceful, with journalists and witnesses on the ground reporting only minor scuffles.
Erle, a student in his early 20s, told AFP he had not seen any violence from the protesters or the police, many of whom appeared to be his own age.
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“Everything happened quietly, we were singing songs, then one of my friends grabbed me and pulled me with him,” he said.
The police have promised that those detained will not be arrested, but will be removed from the camp and prevented from returning.
A police press spokesman said on Wednesday the action “could last several weeks” with another demonstration planned for Saturday.
RWE, the energy company that owns the neighboring mine, tweeted on Wednesday that the expansion of the site was necessary because of the German energy crisis, which was triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In “Luetzerath coal is needed … during the energy crisis and thus use less gas in the power plant” the company wrote, said the demolition through an independent review.
Despite returning to coal to ease pressure on gas-fired plants as the country cuts off Russian energy, Germany has said it is not wavering from its goal of exiting coal power by 2030.
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