Tesla’s factory in Germany still is not fully operational yet, and a small fire that broke out there overnight isn’t helping. Some left-wing activists have claimed responsibility for it, while German authorities say they are investigating.
Some power cables were damaged at the Tesla site, though according to Reuters the damage was contained to an area “around three square meters.”
From Reuters:
The fire at Gruenheide in the eastern state of Brandenburg early Wednesday morning damaged several power cables leading to the Tesla site and an area of around 3 square meters, said a spokesman for the LKA state criminal investigation office.
[A spokesperson for the LKA state criminal investigation office] said arson was not being ruled out and investigators were examining a letter that circulated on social media during Wednesday which claimed responsibility.
The letter, which was published on a radical left platform, said it had cut the power supply to the Tesla site by setting fire to six high-voltage cables above ground.
Die Welt has seen the letter itself, and you can read it in full here if you’d like, though I don’t necessarily recommend, since it isn’t very coherent and its politics inchoate. Here is an excerpt:
Tesla is neither green, ecological nor social. Tesla is a corporation that exploits the world, destroys livelihoods and uses and creates colonial conditions of exploitation. Our fire stands against the lie of the green automobile. The aim was to sabotage the construction site of the Tesla Giga Factory. The ideology of limitless technological progress and the global destruction of the earth do not come to an end with fine words.
More generally, Die Welt says that residents have long complained that it might damage a nearby nature reserve and the area’s water supply. Final environmental approvals, meanwhile, are still up in the air.
Die Welt also quotes a different activist who has “turned against violent actions on the construction site.”
The Grünheide citizens’ initiative, which is critically accompanying the construction of the Tesla factory, turned against violent actions on the construction site with a view to the fire, but believed it was possible earlier, according to its own account. “We feared that because many people do not feel involved in the democratic process of the settlement of Tesla,” said Steffen Schorcht from the initiative.