Greta Thunberg goes to save Lützerath and compares open-cast mining with Mordor

• Germany Lützerath activists put the Greens in front of their contractions

Some 35,000 people, according to the organizers, no more than 10,000 according to the Police, attended the demonstration this Saturday called by climate activists and environmental organizations against the expansion of an open-pit lignite mine in the Rhineland village of Lützerath .

"Open pit mining is like Mordor", the kingdom of evil in the

movie , declared the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, star and protester of a concentration with scenes of violence.

"Lützerath is still here, and as long as the coal is still underground, this fight is not over," the 20-year-old told a large crowd gathered despite bad weather in the western German North Rhine-Westphalian city. .

The march started several kilometers from the village, uninhabited for months, and cordoned off by the Police since a thousand activists entrenched themselves there earlier this week to prevent the entry of the shovels of the RWE coal company, owner of the land.

Let's go to Lützerath!" was the motto of a demonstration and the crowd moved there, despite calls from the Police, who at one point

. They could see it coming. Around 2:30 p.m., very shortly after the first speeches, hundreds of protesters took up positions in front of a first line of police. The officers already had their batons drawn and were trying to push people back. At times people broke through. The Policemen ran to safety, while peaceful protesters were begged through megaphones to distance themselves from “the criminals.” Eyewitnesses reported throwing stones, flares and Molotov cocktails and wounded people requiring paramedical attention.

From the speaker's box, however, people were encouraged to break through the security lines and into the village.

"

. We are on the side of justice. This repressive system will not stop us. We are going to stop this open pit mine," he shouted.

The action to save Lützerath has had the support of practically all known environmental organizations, such as NABU, WWF and Greenpeace, in addition to Thunberg's Fridays for Future, it was expected to be massive.

By noon, traffic was already congested on the roads surrounding the rally site.

There were heavy traffic jams around Keyenberg and at the Mönchengladbach-Wanlo motorway exit.

The police asked all people who were not traveling to the demonstration to move around the area.

The railway also warned on Twitter of more crowded trains and delays.

Activists came from different parts of Germany, but also from neighboring countries, such as the activist Gerhard, who spent the night with a friend in a tent in the Keyenberg yard.

"It is one of the largest and most effective demonstrations, I endure eight and a half hours of travel from Austria," he explained.

The motivation was the same in all cases: to prevent a demolition

that, once the storm has passed, will take place anyway, since it has the backing of the courts and was agreed by the energy company RWW with the government of North Rhine-Westphalia. ., in which the Green party participates.

The agreement also had the green light from the federal government, also participated by that formation.

Accusing the Greens of treason to the cause that they proclaim and with which they have allegedly committed themselves, was mandatory in the script of the speakers, including Thunberg.

"You have to be accountable," said the Swede.

"Today you are clearly demonstrating that change will not come from the people in power, from governments, from corporations, from so-called leaders," she said.

"No, the real leaders are here", was the critic of the Nobel Prize to the Greens.

"It is incomprehensible that in 2023 coal will continue to be extracted and burned, when it is well known that the climate change it causes is costing lives in many parts of the world," denounced the leader of Fridays for Future, for whom "

, have a huge responsibility," he warned.

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