The standoff between environmental protesters and German authorities at the Tesla car plant near Berlin deepened on Saturday, with both sides refusing to back down in the dispute over the giant site's expansion.
Activists at a forest camp organized to protest the US electric carmaker's plans said they will take legal action to prevent authorities from forcing them to dismantle tree houses they built and leave.
Protesters will "exhaust all legal means to prevent an eviction," according to a statement from the "Stop Tesla" initiative.
The group has not said what specific steps it intends to take.
On Friday, it said "60 to 80 people" were occupying part of the forest near the plant located in Grünheide in the state of Brandenburg and that more and more people are joining the protest.
The activists had registered the camp as a political gathering, which is protected by German law and does not require special police permission. Such gatherings, however, can be prohibited under certain circumstances.
Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen said he saw the refusal to dismantle the tree houses as a breach of the conditions, which could possibly mean the protest has to end.
According to Stübgen, he had also noticed an increasing radicalization among some participants around the camp and said many wanted to create a "European centre against eco-fascism."
Additional police may be brought in to prevent possible attacks on Tesla and deter "previously uninterested, violent" people who now felt motivated to come to the location.
"Leave it alone, it's not worth it," said Stübgen.
The protesters want to prevent the state-owned forest from being cleared under a major expansion of the Tesla site, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk. In a non-binding resolution, a majority of Grünheide's residents voted against its development.
As a compromise, the municipality suggested that only around half of the earmarked forest area be cleared for the expansion, which has prompted environmental concerns about potential risks for sensitive nearby wetlands.
Authorities had confirmed an extension of the protesters' camp until Thursday under certain conditions, including that they must dismantle their tree houses by Monday.
The activists had already announced that they would not fulfil this condition. Some of them slept in the tree houses on Friday night, despite a ban on this by the authorities due to safety concerns.
The Tesla plant made the headlines last last week, when previously unknown perpetrators set fire to a freely accessible electricity pylon in a field in East Brandenburg, which also supplies the car factory in Grünheide.
The left-wing extremist Vulkan group declared that they were responsible for the attack, which paralysed production at the plant for days.
According to the company, around 12,500 people currently work at the factory, which opened in March 2022.
