Instead of concrete measures for the Garzweiler opencast mining region, the state cabinet in North Rhine-Westphalia has decided to “postpone it until the end of 2026”. Is the coal no longer needed in the villages? There is frustration on site.
When it storms in North Rhine-Westphalia, it happens that the lignite and overburden dust from the Garzweiler opencast mine rises from the pit in huge clouds and makes the A44n motorway, which runs close to the edge of the demolition, impassable. This piece of road replaces a central part of the A61 south of Mönchengladbach, which was in the way of the opencast mine and was demolished in 2018.
That was not a problem for the surrounding area as long as the L277 road still existed, which could absorb the motorway traffic. But the lignite group RWE also had this highway demolished almost a year ago – without an alternative being created. And so now on days when the motorway has to be closed because of the clouds of dust, the traffic through the 1400-soul village of Holzweiler is tormented.
This spectacle, which is repeated at regular intervals – most recently last week – acts like a symbol for the problems of structural change in the region, which Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) sometimes describes as a process of “unleashing”. Only a few weeks ago, the leading lignite decision was passed in Düsseldorf, which was supposed to pour the federal coal phase-out law into concrete measures for the region. Among other things, it says: “… the resettlement of the five villages in the north of the Garzweiler opencast mine, which is already well advanced, will be postponed until the end of 2026”. On paper, this may sound like a respite, at the end of which it could even come to the conclusion that the lignite is no longer needed in the villages. But on the ground it causes frustration.
Not only the local residents, but also the mayor of Erkelenz, Stephan Muckel (CDU), who was elected in autumn and in whose urban area all the towns still threatened by opencast mining are located, feels abandoned: “Actually, the state should support us as a municipality. But instead of finally giving us planning security, the lead decision only prolonged the uncertainty ”, says Muckel, who has been convinced, not only since the Constitutional Court’s climate protection ruling,“ that the villages will no longer be used for mining purposes. But the urban development process that we urgently need to push here would contradict a federal law. A mayor cannot decide what to do here. “
Muckel is faced with the doubly difficult legacy of having to convey to the people who have already been resettled in his community that their old homeland may still be preserved – and with those whose land the bucket wheel excavators are digging their way up to 2026 shape.
“We are already doing what we can,” says Muckel: He is in discussion with the regional association, which is taking stock of the buildings worth preserving in the villages. “And if the church does not want to get back the buildings they have already sold to RWE and continue to maintain them, we must and will find other uses for them. In any case, for me it is clear that no building has to be demolished at the moment; it is easily possible to take your time this year or next. “
While a new culture of democracy is sprouting on site and the new mayor of Erkelenz openly expresses “Respect for those who still hope” for the first time, i.e. for those residents who, for example, have created a strong voice for themselves with the “All villages remain” initiative, the country lets the RWE machine (s) run. “The revision date 2026 expressed by Mr. Pinkwart (note: NRW Minister of Economic Affairs Andreas Pinkwart (FDP)) may sound like a ray of hope,” says Stephan Muckel, “but for us it only means that we are currently driving on sight.”
And so they live on for the time being with the approaching steel giants on the horizon. With wandering earth walls, unclear plans and the traffic of an entire motorway that squeezes through ancient village streets, because the structural change exactly where it is most needed is, to this day, primarily a dismantling of structures.