German police have deployed water cannons to disperse protesters outside the mining town of Lutzerath following a spike in tension over environmental protests against the demolition of the town to expand a mine.
Hundreds of protesters have clashed with police on Saturday shouting «To Lutzerath!», forcing riot police to intervene.
Hours earlier, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Saturday criticized the leaders of the German Green party, a coalition partner in the German government, for their support for the demolition of the village in the west of the country for the extraction of coal from the subsoil.
Thunberg has demanded that companies such as energy company RWE, which owns the land, be held accountable for the way they treat people. «The fact that the Greens are engaging with these companies shows what their priorities are,» he added.
These statements have clashed diametrically with one of the party’s top representatives, Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who this past Friday lamented that the environmental activists who had occupied the village because of their opposition to the use of this area for coal mining are fighting a «misguided battle.»
Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Keyenberg, thousands of people have also demonstrated against RWE’s plans to open a coal mine there.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
