Greta Thunberg slams German police violence against climate activists

BERLIN (AA) - Climate activist Greta Thunberg slammed German police Friday for using excessive force against environmental groups resisting a coal mine expansion in Lutzerath.

“Germany is really embarrassing itself right now,” Thunberg said during her visit to the village.

“It is shocking to see what is happening, both what is happening in the pictures, but also here in real life,” she said, saying police violence against protesters was outrageous.

Hundreds of officers evicted climate activists this week from buildings they occupied in the abandoned village to expand a nearby coal mine. Wooden huts and barricades belonging to the activists were razed to the ground by excavators.

“When governments and corporations are acting like this, destroying the environment, putting countless people at risk, the people step up," said Thunberg.

She urged supporters to attend a massive protest Saturday in the region to defend the village and stop the coal mine expansion plans.

Lutzerath was occupied by anti-coal activists for two years and became a symbol for environmentalist groups demanding an end to the use of coal and fossil fuels.

Environmental groups had hoped Luzerath would be spared from excavation after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left coalition, among them the pro-environment Green party, took office in December 2021 pledging to phase out the use of coal.

Russia's war in Ukraine, however, triggered an energy crisis, forcing Berlin to restart mothballed coal plants to secure the country's power needs.

German energy company RWE is planning to demolish the village to expand the Garzweiler coal mine to extract 280 million tons of lignite by 2030.