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"Germany is really embarrassing itself right now," said
Thunberg, who said the expansion of the Garzweiler lignite coal
mine run by energy firm RWE was absurd in 2023.
"The science is clear: we need to keep the carbon in the
ground," she told reporters in Luetzerath on Friday.
She said "police violence" used in the removals was outrageous.
Thunberg said she plans to join a demonstration on Saturday that
will "show what people power looks like, what democracy looks
like - that when government and corporations act like this,
destroying the environment ... the people step up."
For over two years demonstrators have occupied Luetzerath, a
village in the brown-coal district of the western state of North
Rhine-Westphalia, to stop the expansion of the mine.
Following a court decision allowing RWE to proceed with the
expansion, hundreds of police in riot gear moved in on Wednesday
morning, clearing barricades erected by the activists.
Police have said that it could take weeks to resolve the
standoff over the coal mine expansion, which activists see as a
symbol of Berlin's failing climate policy amid an energy crisis
in Europe's biggest economy.
(Reporting by Petra Wischgoll and Stephane Nitschke, Writing by
Miranda Murray, Editing by William Maclean)
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