Green Party adheres to holding party convention at Hambach Forest

The Green Party in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is adamant about holding its party convention at the embattled Hambach Forest. “We as Greens want to send a message and support the peaceful resistance” against energy company RWE, which wants to clear the forest to make room for the expansion of its nearby coal mine, the party says on its website. The Greens call the Hambach Forest “a symbol for the madness that is open pit mining” and argue that “the place where we want to talk about the end of lignite is not a conference room many kilometres away. (…) That’s why we’ve decided to hold the meeting directly on the edge of the mine.”

Find the announcement in German here.

For background, read the CLEW article Germany’s coal commission insists no decision yet on exit date and the coal commission watch.