DÜSSELDORF/ERKELENZ (dpa-AFX) - Shortly before a possible eviction of the occupied village of Lützerath, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) is already looking ahead to the possible ensuing discussion about the corresponding police operation. He hopes that "the whole thing" afterwards will not "as always" degenerate into a debate about whether the police had to do it, Reul said Monday on ZDF's "Morgenmagazin." "We have no choice. If we don't want to have conditions like in other states - that people go wild on the streets, that riots arise - then rules must also be observed," he said.

Energy company RWE wants to demolish Lützerath in the Rhineland region of western North Rhine-Westphalia in order to mine the coal underneath. The land and houses in the village, which is dominated by arable farming, have long belonged to RWE. However, activists who have announced resistance are now living in the remaining premises, whose former residents have moved away. As a result, a large police eviction operation is probably imminent./idt/DP/mis