The rule of law must prevail

The rule of law is one of the greatest achievements of civilization. He overcomes the rule of thumb. And opens up a way to resolve power struggles peacefully, not harmoniously. However, this only works if all parties to the dispute accept the final decisions of the rule of law and only take action against them in the ways provided for by law. Those who give up this elementary rule of the game are working on a world in which the size of the club alone determines what is right. And that would be a wolf world.

That is why the state in North Rhine-Westphalia must not give in either to friends of violence in the name of the climate or to those who break the law in the evangelical church. Mentioning the church and radicals in the same breath may be irritating. But they have something in common: Currently, both violent climate protectors and the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (EKiR) are demonstrating that they do not want to accept the rule of law and its decisions.

First to the climate protectors: In the uninhabited village of Lützerath in the Rhenish lignite mining area, numerous squatters have taken up residence. According to the NRW Ministry of the Interior, a minority of them approve of violence. Yes, according to the police, she is preparing violent resistance. The police are worried that these militant fighters will fight again like in 2018 in the Hambach Forest with Molotov cocktails, slingshots and pickets – against the energy company RWE. Because he plans to clear Lützerath in order to mine coal there. One may damn and curse that. But it has been decided in the last instance that RWE may demolish the settlement. This permit is also the laboriously negotiated price that the climate protection movement pays for NRW to phase out coal production as early as 2030. However, the left-wing Greens are now increasingly warning that the police should under no circumstances facilitate the eviction by driving away violent squatters. A friend of the rule of law can only reply: Yes, unfortunately that is exactly what has to happen - if in future it is not the fence pickets who are to decide how we live.

Of course, the case of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland is different. Your leadership once again stood behind every community that hides rejected asylum seekers and prevents their legally valid deportation. Reason: You don't trust the courts. This publicly expressed contempt for due process is peaceful. Nevertheless, it could pave the way to the law of the fist. If a church only accepts law where it pleases, why not other groups? We live in a secular state, the church is not allowed to do more than others. So why should other citizens accept laws that they don't like? But where the law is ignored, there is a threat of violence – see above. Therefore: If the police in North Rhine-Westphalia were to get people to be deported out of churches in the future, as is occasionally the case in other countries, that would also be a victory for the rule of law. Not barbarism, but barbarism prevention.