Some 1,200 activists from across Europe gathered outside a factory in the village of Grünheide near Berlin on Thursday, Bild reported. They set up tents, flags of Palestine and the German terrorist movement RAF ("Red Army Faction").
The left-wing radicals are demanding a halt to the expansion of the factory. Hundreds of police, including mounted police, stood up to defend the factory against the activists. Police are using riot gear, batons and water cannons.
Today the demonstrators have broken into the territory of the factory. They are storming the factory under a red flag with the slogan "Disrupt capitalism, create future!" The police are trying to stop the radicals.
Previously, left-wing radicals have already tried to stop the enterprise. In early March this year, activists set fire to electric poles that supplied electricity to the Tesla plant. As a result, due to power outages, production was halted. In addition, there was no electricity in different neighborhoods of Brandenburg and Berlin.
The left-extremist organization Vulkangruppe ("Volcano Group") took responsibility for the action. Since its founding in 2011, members of the organization have repeatedly set fires at industrial facilities. In an open letter, the Vulkangruppe described its goal as "the complete destruction of the Gigafactory" and called Tesla founder Elon Musk a "techno-fascist".
The car factory in the village of Grünheide opened in March 2022. It is the only Tesla plant in Europe. It employs 11,500 people. The capacity of the plant is about 250,000 cars a year. This figure is planned to increase to 1 million.
