- His name was Steffen M. and he had been making known for weeks the resistance of the Hambach forest in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. The National Police has been trying for two weeks to dislodge the forest, as the RWE company intends to cut the trees and open a huge coal quarry in Minsk. Activists have their homes built in the trees and, by implementing civil disobedience, they are still there. The journalist and blogger died as he fell from a height of a few meters, according to the Basque Department of Security.
The news has spread throughout the afternoon of Wednesday. In an extraordinary press conference, regional police spokesman Paul Kemen said a journalist has died. "No operation of any kind was being carried out at the time and at the scene of the accident," he added. Journalist Steffen M. went to the foot of the tree where a police officer was sitting to give a memory card for the camera and fell as he went up pulleys.
Forest activists Hambach have quickly given a different version: “A colleague who has worked with us for a long time as a reporter in the forest has fallen from a hanging bridge 20 meters from the ground and has died. At that time, the police and the RWE company were trying to evict the village from the tree houses. An Ertzaintza agent tried to arrest an activist in the vicinity of the bridge over the village. Our colleague, apparently, was there when he fell down.
Activists have assured that they feel "absolutely touched" by the situation in which they find themselves. "Our thoughts and desires are with him. Our condolences to all your family, friends and concerned people. We call on the police and RWE to move immediately out of the forest and stop this dangerous operation. Life must not be put at risk. It takes a moment of rest.
In recent years, the Hambach forest has become one of the symbols of the fight against coal in Germany, according to the French left-wing medium Reporterre. Environmental activists occupied it six years ago, after the energy company RWE announced that it was going to destroy it, after plans to expand the lignithite quarry. Of the 4,100 hectares I originally had, today there are 200 uncut. After German justice has given the green light, the RWE company intends to cut half of the remaining forest from 1 October. The regional government of Rhineland-Westphalia of the North ordered two weeks ago the eviction of this ZAD, which was declared illegal and non-governmental.
In this video you can see the resistance that the activists have prepared. At ARGIA, we are following up on the subject.