Police Evict Luetzerath Activists At Garzweiler II Coal Mine

ERKELENZ, GERMANY - JANUARY 13: An activist stands on a pole high above the ground as another hangs on a rope fastened between poles as police close in at the settlement of Luetzerath on January 13, 2023 near Erkelenz, Germany. Police are evicting environmental activists who have occupied the abandoned Luetzerath settlement and who are seeking to prevent Luetzerath's demolition that will make way for an expansion of the adjacent Garzweiler II open cast coal mine.Of the several hundred activists on site approximately a few dozen remain, some in treehouses and others attached to tall poles. The North Rhine-Westphalia state government of German Christian Democrats (CDU) and Greens has approved the demolition and the coal mine expansion, while at the same time announcing an accelerated phase out of coal-fired energy production in the state from 2028 to 2030. Other nearby settlements that were also slated for demolition will now be spared, though critics point out that Germany has sufficient energy production capacity and does not need the coal lying beneath Luetzerath. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)