Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has defended a day after being evicted from a protest camp in western Germany that “climate protection is not a crime.”
Thunberg was arrested while taking part in a protest against the demolition of the town of Lützerath, where hundreds of people have come for several days to prevent the expansion of an open-cast coal mine.
About 70 protesters They have sat on the edge of the Garzweiler coal mine, to which the Police have responded by first surrounding them and then holding them back. Among them was Thunberg, who joined the protests on Saturday.
“Yesterday I was part of a group peacefully protesting against the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were surrounded by the Police and detained, but they let us go that afternoon.”, he explained on Twitter, in his first reaction after the incident.
Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening.
Climate protection is not a crime.#LuetziBleibt #LuetziLebt #KeepItInTheGround #ClimateJustice
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 18, 2023
The town of lutzerathin western Germany and long abandoned by its inhabitants, was still occupied until this Sunday afternoon by a small number of activists opposed to the expansion of coal exploitation in the area by the energy company RWE.
The operation came to an end on Monday, after the last two activists who had entrenched themselves in a town redoubt voluntarily left a tunnel.
However, this Tuesday there were new actions in other parts of the region, including the capital of the “Land” of North Rhine-WestphaliaDüsseldorf, while a group of up to 70 activists staged another protest, including Thunberg.
from the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz The acts of resistance held over the weekend were condemned today, which according to the Ministry of the Interior became violent and hindered the work of the health teams.
From the convening environmental movements, it has been ensured, on the other hand, that the police acted with disproportionate forcefulness, including hitting the activists on the head with batons.
The police operation began at the end of last week and on the same Friday all the buildings in the town occupied in the previous days by activists had been evicted.
However, several groups of people remained spread out in about 35 wooden constructions installed in trees and other places in the area.
Although the German government’s plan is for the abandonment of coal in North Rhine-Westphalia to take place as early as 2030, according to the agreement signed last year with the energy company RWE in the short term, it is planned to increase the extraction of coal in the face of the energy crisis stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(with information from EP and EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com