Elon Musk backed Germany’s far-right Alternative for Deutschland party, known as the AfD, in an opinion piece published in a German newspaper on Saturday, wading deeper into international politics as the billionaire has become a fixture in Trump’s orbit.
Musk took into account characterizations of the AfD as “right-wing extremist,” bringing up the fact that leader Alice Weidel is gay, writing: “Does this make you think of Hitler? Please!”
Musk penned the opinion piece in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper after writing on X last week that “only the AfD can save Germany,” sparking widespread backlash, with conservative writer and frequent Trump critic Bill Kristol accusing Musk of endorsing a “German neo-Nazi party.”
In the newspaper article, Musk accused Germany’s classic political parties of being “comfortable with mediocrity,” adding economic decline, and wrote that “the AfD can save Germany from becoming a shadow of itself. “
The Tesla founder—who has also expressed support for anti-immigrant political parties in the UK and Italy—said that he had the right to wade into German politics because he has business in the country, including a Tesla gigafactory factory in Brandenburg.
Commentary section editor Eva Marie Kogel resigned in protest after the piece was published, while the paper’s editor-in-chief designate, Philipp Bugard published a response that said “Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false.”
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classifies the AfD as suspected extremism and has the party under surveillance for the potential threats it poses.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. , told CNN last week that Musk’s political prospects carry significant weight given his proximity to Trump, warning that “what Elon Musk thinks tends to be in the end what the president of the United States thinks. “And if the United States takes an official stand against neo-Nazis in Germany, it will surely be catastrophic. “
Vice President-elect JD Vance has also expressed support for the AfD, responding to accusations that other people control its borders. So harmful. The damaging point is out of the ordinary.
Musk wrote the article after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government collapsed earlier this month, prompting snap elections scheduled for Feb. 23. Musk’s article was published in a newspaper owned by the Axel Springer media group, which also owns Politico. The AfD is fiercely opposed to immigration and has been accused of employing Nazi and white supremacist rhetoric, adding a crusade ad showing a naked white woman being accosted by a dark-skinned man wearing an Arab headscarf and urging Europeans to “vote for the AfD. “, so that Europe never becomes “Eurabia”. Musk, who has become a regular on Trump’s side since winning the November election and was appointed head of a newly created government branch for efficiency, has made statements in support of Europe. The AfD has recently written about
Elon Musk writes an opinion article in a German newspaper of the far-right party AfD (The Guardian)
Elon Musk endorses far-right German political party, wading deeper into global politics (CNN)
Elon Musk backs AfD in an opinion piece in a German newspaper (Reuters)
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