Villages vanishing despite Germany's coal exit see themselves as pawns in policy tit-for-tat
Rheinische Post / WDR
The villages around Germany's open-cast lignite mines in federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) that are slated for demolition to make room for expanding the mines see themselves as bargaining chips in a greater policy tit-for-tat, villagers told the Rheinische Post. "We here in Erkelenz are only a chessboard for big politics," Peter Jansen, mayor of Erkelenz from chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU said, adding that saving the symbolic Hambach Forest as agreed in Germany's coal exit roadmap has been bad news for the villages' future. Ingo Bajerke, resident of the threatened village Keyenberg, said "it's good that Hambach Forest stays, but our villages will kick the bucket." He said the people of his town tried to "step out of Hambach Forest's shadow, but we didn't achieve it." Local SPD politician Katharina Gläsmann from Erkelenz said "I'm annoyed by the fact that a forest comes before people. That's not right," arguing that "trees are being weighed against people, jobs and homes – this won't add up." She said the town's parties would seek a cross-party solution to litigate against their demolition.
NRW state premier Armin Laschet told public broadcaster WDR the plans to demolish villages and relocate residents would continue as planned after the agreement found on Germany's coal exit roadmap. While the Hambach Forest stays and production in the nearby mine is going to be limited, mining will continue unabated in open cast mine Garzweiler, which borders the abovementioned villages. "We need Garzweiler as it was planned," Laschet said.
The Hambach Forest has become a battleground for climate activists from Germany and beyond, some of which were living in makeshift-homes in the forest's trees for years, and saw some of the largest climate action protests ever in the country in 2018. The villages' demolition had been agreed on in the NRW parliament years ago but many of the residents argue the country's coal exit puts the decision into question.