Staying local

The GFL really keeps focused on their aims. Thus they did not run for the mayor elections in 2009.
Their primary aims are:


to be one of the three strongest parties in the council of Lünen
to decrease the votes of CDU and SPD to under 50% (beforehand SPD and CDU had about 80% of the votes altogether)
to redeem the coalition of SPD and CDU in Lünen


To achieve those aims it was necessary to concentrate on the local elections rather than to waste energy on any other targets. This shows, that the GFL is really interested in improving their local environment and not to gain an much power for themselves as they possibly can.


Impressively they were quite successful in the elections in 2009. Remember, they formed in December 2007. When the council of Lünen was elected in August 2009, the GFL already achieved 13,1% of the votes. These were the first elections they took part in and they already were among the three strongest parties in Lünen:

7 Reasons against the coal-burning power plant

1. Health
The coal-burning power plant would be the 8th in a 30 kilometer ambit. Due to such a high amount of power plants in that area the critical value was crossed several times and another power plant would increase the problem even more.




2. Economical and fiscal reasons
The power plant will cost 1400 million euros. Costs like for the CO2-certificate will occur later. Furthermore the power plant will have big disadvantages compared to renewable energy, so the prospective tax profit will not be as high as the politicians expect it to be



3.Legal Risk
Currently the BUND (Bund Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland e.v.) wails against the construction of the power plant. This case could take years and if the BUND wins all the money, which was already invested, will be lost.



4. Out-dated technology
Coal-burning power plants are after all outdated, especially when compared to renewable energy. Furthermore the degree of efficiency of the power plant in Lünen will only be about 45% because it will be built like older power plants without new technology which would increase the degree of efficiency to about 70%



5. Climate
Climate change is a great danger nowadays. Power plants which eject such a big amount of CO2 should be rather banished than newly built.



6. Landscape
Thus there are already a lot of power plants in the area around another one is just too much. It would disturb the landscape around and destroy a lot of the green area.




7. Depreciation of estates
The houses and estates around will lose a lot of their value. This is taken from the estimation from the Immobilienverband IG West from 2008

Why GFL – Gemeinsam für Lünen

The GFL is a small political party that was formed by 9 citizens in December 2007. Before that those citizens were trying to prevent the construction of a new coal-burning power plant which is planned to be built in Lünen. They organized meetings to inform the residents about the power plant, collected signatures and invited politicians to talk about the issue, but still the plan to build the power plant was not cancelled. Though meanwhile many citizens stated, that they are strictly against a coal-burning power plant in their city, government still holds on to the plan because it is going to earn them a lot of money. Most of the parties were even not interested in talking to the people and never attended one of the meetings.

The business manager of Trianel, the company which is going to build the power plant, officially said that if the majority of votes stated that Lünen does not want the power plant it will not be built. But CDU, FDP and SPD just ignored the voices of the citizens. The prospective profit is more important than what the public wants.

After they realized that the existing parties are not going to change anything, 9 citizens decided to change something on their own and so the GFL was founded.
Their plan was to offer a long-ranging alternative for the voters for the local election in 2009. Their main interests were and are still:

- the prevention of the building of the power plant and thus energy policy in general

- climate- and environment protection

- finances

- economy

- education

- cultural interests


For more information visit:

Why GFL