BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Green Party leader Ricarda Lang has defended her party's line in the conflict over lignite mining in the Rhenish coalfield as pragmatic. "If you look at 1.5, then you can hardly really be satisfied with any compromise these days," the co-party chairwoman said in Berlin on Monday, referring to the goal set out in the Paris climate agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times, if possible. "And at the same time, it's clear that if we didn't make any compromises, then simply nothing would happen in climate protection. Because very few other parties have a serious interest in this."

The energy company RWE, which wants to mine the coal under Lützerath, has had a "judged legal claim to the area there" since March of last year at the latest, Lang said. If the Greens had not negotiated, Lützerath and five other villages would have been dredged and 500 people resettled. For now, he said, coal will continue to be needed in Germany for power generation: "For the next few years, it's clear that because of Putin's war of aggression on Ukraine, we'll first have to convert more coal into electricity to ensure energy security in that country."

How much of the coal under Luetzerath is needed depends, among other things, on how expensive the consumption of coal becomes in European emissions trading - where companies trade rights to emit carbon dioxide. Also important, he said, are the costs of other energy sources and the pace of renewable energy expansion. Lang also urged a coal phase-out in eastern Germany brought forward from 2038 to 2030. "If the minister presidents of the eastern states from Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg refuse to engage in the debate on the 2030 coal phase-out, they will also end up refusing to engage in the debate on secure jobs in their states."

Lang said her impression was that the "very, very overwhelming majority of the demonstrations and protests" in Lützerath were peaceful. "Where that was not the case, it is of course not acceptable." According to her impression, the police also acted very prudently in many places during the eviction. "At the same time, there are pictures from this Saturday, there are videos from this Saturday, which also honestly shock me." He said it was therefore important that the police operation was dealt with in parliament and that police violence had consequences. Activists accuse the police of violent excesses during the large demonstration on Saturday./hrz/DP/men