Protests against Elon Musk’s ‘unpaid job’ cutting US government spending arrive in Europe
Anger against the apparently unpaid role of Tesla founder, Elon Musk, in reducing United States government spending, is spilling across the Atlantic into Europe – and threatens to affect the Lisbon showroom of the electric car manufacturer at El Corte Inglés on Sunday, March 9 (See update below: protest may have moved to Porto).
The Portuguese demonstration is registered on the ‘Tesla Takedown’ online portal*, along with protests planned for the United Kingdom, Spain* and Iceland.
Last weekend, there were a string of actions mounted in the US – the idea being to encourage a boycott of Tesla, and “get back at Elon”, whose strategy, through the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to recover US government liquidity has been to summarily sack thousands of federal workers, and axe several state programmes involving overseas aid.
The demos are said to be energising democrats (who have been described as ‘demoralised’ following the election result that returned Mr Trump to the White House) and even appealing to those who voted for Mr Trump, and have now decided they should not have.
As one American citizen told the US press: “This government has gone completely off the rails and we’re here to stop it”.
It is not immediately apparent who/ what organisations are behind the Tesla Takedown portal – but the message is loud and clear: “Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines. Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk. Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy”.
The value of Tesla shares has fallen by almost a third since Donald Trump took office, but it is higher than it was a year ago, admit reports.
*Meantime, since Lusa reported the protest planned in Lisbon for next Sunday, the ‘pin’ showing its location has disappeared from the Takedown site. Indeed, so has the name ‘Portugal’. The same goes for the protest scheduled in Spain, although Spain at least is still mentioned as a country.
UPDATE MARCH 4: the Tesla Takedown portal has updated its information on protests in Europe to show a protest on Sunday (March 9) at the Tesla Center in Porto at 10am. For further information, consult the portal as information does appear to change fairly regularly.
Source material: LUSA
