Greta Thunberg joins German coal mine protest as thousands face off against police

Thousands of people demonstrated in persistent rain on Saturday to protest the clearing and demolition of a village in western Germany that will make way for an expansion of a coal mine. There was a standoff with the police as some protesters tried to reach the edge of the mine and the village.

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg joined the protesters as they protested the cleanup of Luetzerath, walking through the nearby village of Keyenberg and muddy fields. Demonstrators chanted “Every village remains” and “You are not alone.”

Organizers said around 35,000 people took part, while police put the figure at 15,000. Amid the protests, police said people had broken through barriers and some had entered the Garzweiler coal mine.

Some who tried to get to the edge of the mine were pushed back. And German news agency dpa reported that police used water cannons and batons outside Luetzerath itself, which is now cordoned off, against hundreds of people who reached far away. Things calmed down after dark.

Some protesters have complained about what they say is an unwanted police response and about the scale of the police response this week. Police, meanwhile, said some protesters had thrown firecrackers at officers and damaged a patrol car.

Thunberg said the fate of Luetzerath and the expansion of the mine matters far beyond Germany.

In the global fight against climate change, “what everyone does matters,” he told The Associated Press shortly before the protest. “And if one of the biggest polluters, like Germany, and one of the biggest historical emitters of CO2 does something like this, it will definitely affect everyone – especially those who are most affected by the climate crisis.”

While the demonstration was underway, Luetzerath’s cleanup was progressing well.

The operation to evict the climate activists who were in the village began on Wednesday morning. In the first three days of the operation, police said around 470 people had left the site, 320 of them voluntarily.

Police said on Friday evening that there were no more activists in the remaining building or on the roof. He said on Saturday he still had to overcome 15 “structures”, such as a tree house, and tried to enter a tunnel where two people were believed to be inside, dpa reported. Work to demolish the building is underway.

Luetzerath has been a famous cause for critics of Germany’s climate efforts.

Environmentalists say that bulldozing the village to develop the Garzweiler mine would result in huge greenhouse gas emissions. The government and utility company RWE say coal is needed to ensure Germany’s energy security.

Regional and national governments, which include the environmentally-conscious Green Party, reached a deal with RWE last year to demolish abandoned villages in return for ending coal use by 2030, instead of 2038.

Some speakers at Saturday’s demonstration attacked the Greens, whose leader argued that the deal met many environmental demands and saved five more villages from demolition.

“It’s very strange to see the German government, including the Green Party, making deals and compromises with companies like RWE, with fossil fuel companies, when it would be better to be responsible for all the damage and destruction they have caused,” Thunberg said.

“My message to the German government is to immediately stop what is happening here, stop the damage, and ensure climate justice for everyone.”