BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - In view of criticism from the climate movement against the Greens for clearing the lignite site of Lützerath, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has expressed concern. "That also touches me or drives me around, just like everyone in my party," Habeck said Wednesday evening on ZDF's "heute-journal." "But still, we have to explain what is right. And right was - unfortunately - to ward off the gas shortage, an energy emergency in Germany, also with additional electricity generation from lignite - and to bring forward the coal exit at the back."

Lützerath is not "the carry-on of the energy policy of the past: conversion of lignite to electricity," Habeck stressed. "It's not, as is claimed, the eternal carry-on, it's the end of it." Unfortunately, he said, it was no longer possible to save the village of Lützerath - "but it is the end of lignite-fired power generation in NRW." "In this respect - with great respect for the climate movement - I think the place is the wrong symbol."

Police had begun clearing the village of Lützerath, occupied by climate activists at the Garzweiler open pit mine, on Wednesday morning. The energy company RWE wants to excavate the coal lying under Lützerath. For this purpose, the hamlet on the territory of the city of Erkelenz is to be demolished. In return, the economics ministries led by the Greens in the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had agreed with RWE to bring forward the phase-out of coal in the west from 2038 to 2030. In addition, five already largely empty villages at the Garzweiler open pit mine in the neighborhood are to be preserved./sku/DP/zb