Climate change activist Greta Thunberg has joined thousands of people demonstrating against the demolition of a village in western Germany to make way for the expansion of a coal mine.
The Swedish activist joined other protesters against the Lützerath eviction, walking through the nearby village of Keyenberg and past muddy fields in the persistent rain.
Protesters chanted “Every village stays” and “You are not alone”.
On the fringes of the protest, police said people had broken through their barriers, some entering the Garzweiler mine.
By the time the demonstration took place, the evacuation of Lützerath was well underway.
The operation to evict climate activists hidden in the village began on Wednesday morning. According to the police, around 470 people left the site in the first three days of the operation, 320 of them voluntarily.
They said on Friday afternoon that there were no more activists in the remaining buildings and on their roofs.
German news agency dpa reported that on Saturday they said they still had to deal with 15 “structures” such as tree houses and were trying to enter a tunnel where two people were hiding.
The demolition of the buildings is already underway.
Environmentalists say demolishing the village to expand the Garzweiler mine would result in huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.
The government and utility RWE say coal is needed to ensure Germany’s energy security.
The regional and national governments, which both include the pro-environmental Green Party, reached a deal with RWE last year that would allow RWE to demolish the abandoned village in exchange for ending coal use by 2030 instead of 2038 .
Speakers at Saturday’s rally attacked the Greens, whose leaders say the deal has satisfied many of environmentalists’ demands and saved five other villages from demolition.
“It’s very weird to see the German government, including the Green party, make deals and compromise with companies like RWE, with fossil fuel companies, when they should rather be held accountable for all the damage and destruction they have caused,” Thunberg said, reports Independent.
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