Tesla manufacturing unit in Brandenburg: local weather activists towards Elon Musk | EUROtoday

ALamin Chukwugozie is allowed to strategy the prepare tracks inside fifty meters. This is among the necessities for the activists within the forest. But he doesn't have to come back any nearer as a result of he can see every thing from right here. A barren forest of birch timber and moss, the tracks, the excessive chain-link fence, the 2 safety guards and, far within the background, the grey partitions of the manufacturing unit that Chukwugozie is anxious with. The “Gigafactory” from the electrical automobile producer Tesla.

It is to be expanded right here within the Brandenburg neighborhood of Grünheide. The clearing the place Chukwugozie stands would not exist. That's why he moved to the forest exterior Berlin every week in the past. Other activists had already arrange a protest camp there. “We’re doing a water occupation,” he says.

The Tesla manufacturing unit is partly positioned in a ingesting water safety space. Climate activists had already criticized the primary building of the plant 4 years in the past. But the truth that Brandenburg was in a position to deliver the group's first European manufacturing web site to Germany was a terrific success for a lot of others. Exactly two years in the past, Chancellor Olaf Scholz stood between Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke and Elon Musk in Grünheide and there was a widespread feeling of optimism. They watched as the primary electrical automobile rolled off the meeting line.

Grünheide's residents not need Teslas

Now Musk desires extra: the 300 hectare manufacturing unit web site is to be expanded by 100 hectares. Instead of 250,000 electrical automobiles, a million might be produced right here yearly. But nearly all of the 8,800 residents don’t share Musk's imaginative and prescient of the long run for the small East German neighborhood. They don't need extra Teslas. In a survey on the finish of February, 65 p.c voted towards the enlargement. The vote will not be legally binding. The native council will now resolve the best way to proceed.

Chukwugozie runs again to the protest camp within the forest. The Tesla manufacturing unit can be seen from there. Three tree trunks are tied collectively excessive up on the aspect of the trail. Behind it, the forest occupation begins with particular person tree homes, tents and material banners hanging between the tree trunks. According to the “Stop Tesla” alliance, 100 local weather activists are right here.

They set strict guidelines for themselves in the midst of the forest and demand that others comply with them too: law enforcement officials or “cops”, as they’re primarily known as right here, usually are not allowed to come back into the camp, they are saying. Internally there may be delicate consideration. “Trigger words” comparable to “Tesla” ought to be averted as this may increasingly evoke an excessive amount of emotion for some; It is best to talk of “the company”. If potential, the activists ought to solely stroll on marked paths.

All of this works with out hierarchy, says Chukwugozie, sitting on a bench product of tough picket beams. The activists give themselves pseudonyms after they come into the forest. Chukwugozie known as sesame. He retains pulling moss out of the bottom and takes a deep breath earlier than persevering with his ideas. The 19-year-old activist says he works for local weather justice. He doesn't need to say something extra about himself.

Musk visits the manufacturing unit in Grünheide

The forest occupiers wished to point out society what was truly occurring right here, he says. The “global water battle” is at present going down on this small place. “Grünheide is an example of something very fundamental,” he says. And then comply with the important thing phrases that he retains coming again to: shortage of assets, exploitation, revenue pursuits and capitalism. In Grünheide they might “fight against a system”. A system embodied for the forest occupiers by Elon Musk.

Musk can be in Grünheide that day. A number of hundred meters away he’s speaking to the manufacturing unit workers. The temper isn’t just tense due to the citizen survey. Production has solely been working once more for just a few days. On March fifth, the left-wing extremist “Volcano Group” set hearth to an electrical energy pylon that additionally provides the Tesla manufacturing unit with electrical energy. Musk reacted to this on his social media platform X and described the activists as “the stupidest eco-terrorists in the world”. After all, Tesla produces electrical autos that aren’t powered by fossil fuels. That means: The local weather activists ought to truly be on his aspect.