(The description of the surroundings of the house has been corrected).

ERKELENZ (dpa-AFX) - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg visited Lützerath on Friday and sharply criticized police actions in evicting the village. "It is outrageous how the police violence is," Thunberg said.

In the village, which belongs to Erkelenz on the edge of the Rhineland lignite mining area, the end of the eviction, which began on Wednesday, was already drawing near on Friday. While climate activists were carried out of the last building still occupied by them, the demolition of the former farm of farmer Eckardt Heukamp already began next to it. A yellow banner with the inscription "1.5°C means: Lützerath remains!" had hung on the wall of the farm, visible from afar - this wall was now demolished. The Heukamp farm had been in the background of many protest actions for years and had accordingly high symbolic value.

Thunberg toured the village and the crater of the open pit lignite mine on Friday, holding up a sign that read "Keep it in the ground." Lützerath is to be demolished so energy company RWE can excavate the coal underneath. "It's horrific to see what's happening here," Thunberg said. On Saturday she will attend the planned rally for the preservation of Lützerath, she announced. When governments and corporations collaborate in this way to destroy the environment and endanger countless people, she said, the people must stand up against it and speak out. "We want to show what people power looks like, what democracy looks like." Thousands of participants are expected to attend the rally, according to police.

State Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) told the Bild newspaper that everyone is allowed to demonstrate in North Rhine-Westphalia, "including Ms. Thunberg, who is traveling from afar." He said he hoped she would ensure that her fellow demonstrators remained peaceful. Harsh criticism of Thunberg came from the CSU. Stefan Müller, parliamentary director of the CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, told "Bild": "Greta Thunberg is traveling to Lützerath, even though police officers there are being attacked with stones and fireworks. With her visit, Thunberg knowingly makes herself common with these criminals."

Of the several hundred climate activists who had occupied Lützerath, a few dozen at most were left on Friday. The others had left voluntarily or been taken away by police. Some were still holding out in tree houses. The biggest headache for the police were two activists in a tunnel. Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach climbed a little way into the tunnel shaft himself. Special forces from the fire department and THW would have to take over the rescue of the two people, he said afterwards. "I just think it's terrible what dangers these people are taking on, for themselves." The construction was anything but safe, he added.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticized parts of the protests. "I, too, used to demonstrate more often. However, for me there is a line that runs exactly where protest becomes violent," the SPD politician told "wochentaz." Scholz did not accept criticism that the climate targets were in jeopardy with the development of the lignite deposits under Lützerath: "This accusation is not true. It's the other way around: we're making policy so that we can achieve our climate targets."

Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) also showed little understanding for the protests against the demolition of Lützerath. "There are many good reasons to demonstrate for more climate protection, for my sake also against the Greens. But Lützerath is simply the wrong symbol," Habeck told Der Spiegel.

The village is not the symbol for a continuation of the Garzweiler open-cast lignite mine in the Rhineland, but "it is the end of the line," Habeck said. The coal phase-out in the coalfield there is being brought forward by eight years to 2030, which has always been the goal of the climate movement. "We are saving five localities and farms with around 450 residents. Hambach Forest has been secured. The approved mining volume for coal in opencast mining has been halved by the agreement."

But in the meantime, there is rumblings among the Green party base: An open letter against the clearance was signed by more than 2000 Green Party members by Friday morning. Habeck and NRW Economics Minister Mona Neubaur are called upon in the letter to stop the action immediately. The "negotiated deal with the energy company RWE threatens to break with the principles of our party," it says. The co-federal spokesman for the Green Youth, Timon Dzienus, warned against alienating the Greens from the climate movement. "Right now, the Greens would need the support of the climate movement," he told the news portal "t-online." "The RWE deal doesn't help at all."

According to a poll conducted by ZDF's "Politbarometer," a majority of Germans oppose the expansion of lignite mining areas, as currently planned following the clearing of Lützerath. 59 percent of those surveyed were against such an expansion - 33 percent were in favor. Above all, a clear majority (87 percent) of Green voters are against the project. On the other hand, 60 percent of all respondents consider greater use of coal-fired power plants to secure electricity supplies to be the right thing to do. 36 percent are against it./cd/DP/nas