Greta Thunberg Hauled Away from Climate Protest by German Police

dpatop - 15 January 2023, North Rhine-Westphalia, Erkelenz: Climate activist Greta Thunber
Federico Gambarini/picture alliance via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was reportedly hauled away from a climate protest on Sunday by German police.

Police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia are said to have forcibly removed Swedish activist Greta Thunberg from a green agenda protest in the village of Lützerath on Sunday, local reports have claimed.

The village, which is earmarked for destruction so that a local coal mine can be expanded, has been the site of increasing violence between radical climate protesters and law enforcement officials, with over 70 officers reportedly being injured as a result of clashes.

Having already previously attended the protest, Thunberg reportedly returned to Lützerath again on Sunday to join the protest along with around 70 other activists, who had stationed themselves in the village in the hopes of preventing the coal mine’s expansion.

However, according to a report by Bild, the Swede was eventually forcibly carried away by two German police officers after she refused to comply with a request to leave the area.

While law enforcement officials did not appear to have much difficulty in removing Thunberg from the site, other climate activists did not easily surrender their positions in the condemned village, with there having been frequent clashes between radical climate activists and police.

Although many protesters at the site reportedly remained peaceful, some reportedly opted to throw stones, fireworks, and allegedly even “Molotov cocktails” at police, with officials saying that a group of up to 1,000 mostly masked protesters at one point tried to break through a police cordon on the outskirts of the village on Sunday.

According to a report by Der Spiegel, over 70 officers have now been left injured as a result of the violence in the mining town.

Despite this, German authorities have now been successful in clearing the site of protesters, with officials managing to evacuate the final two activists remaining in the village on Monday.

The final pair had been staying in a small underground tunnel which was deemed unsuitable for human habitation by officials, prompting emergency services to begin a rescue operation for these climate activists.

“What we have seen for [supplying and removing] air is not suitable for ensuring a permanent oxygen supply there in such a way that the CO₂ content does not rise too much,” the senior official reportedly remarked, describing the shaft as “not safe”.

They are said to have left the allegedly dangerous location of their own volition.

Protests have, nevertheless, continued in other parts of the country with activists angry that the increased mining of coal will adversely affect Germany’s climate commitments.

However, according to the mining company in charge of the operation, RWE, the expansion of the local mine and, by extension, the destruction of the small town is necessary to maintain the supply of energy in Germany, with the country having been left stranded in the wake of the Ukraine war largely due, ironically, to its green agenda policies.

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