It’s no secret that Elon Musk is a lightning rod for controversy at this time, particularly together with his work with the Trump administration’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE). However as may very well be seen in Germany’s reactions to a Berlin Senator’s put up on X, you’ll be able to criticize the person, however you don’t go for the hundreds of people who Tesla employs.
Strike Towards Tesla
As famous in an rbb24 report, Berlin’s Labor Senator Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD) ended up pissing off lots of people, particularly in Brandenburg, after she dubbed Teslas “Nazi” vehicles on social media platform X. In her put up, Kiziltepe wrote, “Who needs to drive a Nazi automotive?” She additionally shared a information article that highlighted Tesla’s decline in Germany within the first quarter, titled “Electrical Automobile Producers Expertise Gross sales Growth—Other than Tesla.”
Kiziltepe’s Tesla remark garnered a lot unfavorable consideration that she ended up deleting her put up. She did, nonetheless, share a follow-up which defined that her sentiments towards CEO Elon Musk don’t prolong to the hundreds that Tesla employs, particularly in Germany.
“Tesla is at present experiencing a gross sales hunch as a result of prospects attribute the right-wing extremist positions of its shareholder Elon Musk, who holds round 13% of the corporate. I explicitly stand by my evaluation of Elon Musk. In fact, this doesn’t imply that I maintain Musk’s workers or prospects answerable for his political positions,” the senator wrote in her put up on X.
Brandenburg Backlash
A number of the anger that resulted from Kiziltepe’s put up got here from different officers, akin to Brandenburg’s Minister of Financial Affairs and SPD get together colleague Daniel Keller. The official’s sentiments are comprehensible contemplating that Tesla Gigafactory Berlin is the most important employer within the area, offering jobs to hundreds of individuals within the space.
“Such a Nazi comparability hurts the individuals who work there and is totally inappropriate for a labor senator. I count on the labor senator to retract her traditionally unacceptable comparability and return objectively to the main financial and labor market coverage challenges that Berlin and Brandenburg ought to sort out collectively.
“Everybody can have their very own private opinion about Elon Musk. However it’s essential to me that we don’t overlook the folks behind the Tesla manufacturing facility in Grünheide. 11,000 folks from 150 nations work right here – greater than half of the workers reside in Berlin… Brandenburg and Berlin profit from this when it comes to employment and worth creation,” Keller famous, highlighting that Giga Berlin gives well-paying, everlasting jobs.
Equally Pissed Off
In a remark to the BZ newspaper, Brandenburg’s Minister-President Dietmar Woidke (SPD) said that Kiziltepe’s feedback have been misplaced, as a result of along with the quite a few Berliners who work at Giga Berlin, folks from about 150 nations additionally work on the plant. Berlin CDU parliamentary group chief Dirk Stettner was extra direct, stating that the Berlin Senator’s put up was a “harmful relativization of Nazi terror and thus additionally of the Holocaust.”
The Berlin-Brandenburg Enterprise Affiliation (UVB) shared their frustrations with the senator as properly, with Basic Supervisor Alexander Schirp stating that Kiziltepe’s feedback have been unbecoming of somebody who sits on the Berlin Senate. Schirp additionally said that the feedback have been an affront to Tesla workers. “This is not going to improve the producer’s possibilities of investing within the capital. Statements of this magnitude don’t bode properly for the election marketing campaign,” Keller said.
