Protest against Tesla car factory
Police completely break up Tesla protest camp
Environmental activists refuse to leave their protest camp next to the Tesla car factory. Initially it was a temporary exploration of explosive ordnance. But now the police are dismantling the camp completely.
The police are clearing the protest camp of Tesla opponents that has existed for almost nine months in the forest near the car factory in Grünheide near Berlin. As the police headquarters announced, the meeting will be completely dissolved due to massive violations of public safety and order. Since the end of February, environmental activists have occupied a forest in Grünheide and have built numerous tree houses. They are protesting against the only European car factory owned by the US company Tesla, which is run by billionaire Elon Musk.
Activists criticize the resolution as disproportionate
“We are angry,” said a spokeswoman for Tesla opponents in the forest camp. The police’s decision to dismantle the entire camp was disproportionate. According to current information, there were no violent clashes with the police. There are around a dozen environmental activists in the camp.
A search for explosive ordnance originally triggered police action
Since Monday, they were initially only supposed to temporarily clear part of their forest camp due to an upcoming explosive ordnance search. But the Tesla opponents refused and sometimes climbed to great heights between pine trees. Police height rescuers are on duty for the second day in a row to bring individual people down.
Police speak of massive crimes committed by Tesla opponents in the camp
Police spokeswoman Beate Kardels said there were massive crimes committed throughout the meeting, especially violations of meeting requirements in the last two days. In addition, the police expected a further occupation of environmental activists in the future in order to prevent the upcoming explosive ordnance search on the site.
Hardly comparable to the evacuation years ago in the Hambacher Forest
The police deployment can hardly be compared with images like those seen from the Hambacher Forest in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2018. The threatened destruction of the forest mobilized great resistance at the time – it was about the mining of brown coal. The police responded in a large-scale operation with water cannons and other heavy equipment. It took her weeks to dismantle treehouses and dismantle the activists’ camp. A man fell from a great height from a suspension bridge during the evacuation and died.
Some activists temporarily in custody
In Grünheide, the police immediately asked the activists to clear the area in the forest in view of the dissolution of their protest camp. Some of the Tesla opponents were temporarily taken into custody. Police spokeswoman Beate Kardels said that, based on what we know so far, this was largely cooperative. Police forces also began initial clearing work in the camp. A police spokesman said he currently does not expect there to be any violent clashes between environmental activists and police forces.
The electric car manufacturer Tesla wants to expand its area in Grünheide for a freight station and storage space and to buy a forest area from the state of Brandenburg. “Discussions are ongoing with Tesla,” said a spokesman for the Environment and Forestry Ministry in Potsdam. The area near the car factory has been under investigation for a long time because of suspected explosive weapons.
dpa
Source: Stern
