Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg spoke up a day after being evicted from a western German protest camp, saying “climate protection is not a crime.”
Thunberg was withdrawn by the Police while participating in a protest against the demolition of the town of Lützerath, where hundreds of people have come for several days to prevent the expansion of an open-cast coal mine.
Around 70 protesters sat on the edge of the Garzweiler coal mine, to which police responded by first surrounding them and then holding them back. Among the activists was Thunberg, who joined the protests this Saturday.
“Yesterday I was part of a group peacefully protesting against the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were surrounded by the Police and detained, but they let us go that afternoon, ”he explained on Twitter, his first reaction after the incident.
Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening.
Climate protection is not a crime.#LuetziBleibt #LuetziLebt #KeepItInTheGround #ClimateJustice
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 18, 2023
The town of Lützerath, in western Germany and long abandoned by its inhabitants, was still occupied until this Sunday afternoon by a small number of activists opposed to the expansion of coal exploitation in the area by the company RWE energy.