American billionaire Elon Musk has subsidized the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the European country prepares for elections in February.
The AfD is a close second in opinion polls and would likely thwart a center-right or center-left majority. However, Germany’s main centrist parties have vowed to refuse to form a coalition with the AfD at the national level.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk wrote on Friday in a post on his social media platform, X.
Europe’s largest economy is expected to vote on February 23 after a centre-left coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed.
Musk, who will join U. S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration as an adviser, has in the past voiced other far-right anti-immigration parties across Europe.
The German government said it had taken note of Elon Musk’s message, but declined to comment at its regular news conference.
Scholz told reporters at a news conference that freedom of opinion “also applies to billionaires” and “means that things can be said that do and do not imply intelligent political advice. “
Musk, the world’s richest user, had already expressed his support for the AfD last year when he attacked the German government’s handling of illegal immigration.
Last month, Musk called for the sacking of Italian judges who had questioned the legality of government measures to prevent irregular immigration.
German lawmakers from the primary parties reacted with outrage to Musk’s comment.
“It is threatening, frustrating and unacceptable that a key figure in the long-term US government interferes in the German election campaign,” Dennis Radtke, an MEP from the centre-right Christian Democratic Union, told the Handelsblatt newspaper.
Radtke called Musk a “threat to democracy in the Western world”, accusing the world’s richest man of turning X, previously called Twitter, into a “disinformation slingshot”.
Alex Schaefer, a lawmaker from Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic party, said Musk’s message was “totally unacceptable. “
“We are very close to the Americans, but now we want courage towards our friend. We oppose any intervention in our election campaign,” Schaefer told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Former finance minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Liberal Democrat Party said he had been “inspired” by some of Musk’s concepts, but suggested the Tesla boss “rush to conclusions from a distance. “
“While migration is very important for Germany, the AfD is opposed to freedom and business, and is a far-right party,” the politician said.