German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed fears over the election of Elon Musk from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, weeks before next month’s snap election.
Scholz, in an interview with Stern magazine published on Saturday, said while he was not fazed by the US tech billionaire’s attacks on him and other German politicians, Musk’s endorsement of the far-right party was much more worrying.
“Much more worrying than such insults is the fact that Musk supports a partly right-wing party like the AFD, which advocates a rapprochement with Putin with Russia and seeks to weaken transatlantic relations,” the chancellor told the German magazine.
Musk endorsed the AfD in a lengthy opinion piece published recently in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is monitoring the national AfD party as a suspected right-wing extremist organization. Some state-level branches of the AfD have already received that designation.
The party obtained mass profits in Eastern Germany in the recent regional elections and almost doubled its popularity measured in opinion surveys, to about 20%, in the period prior to the early elections of February 23.
MUSK is expected to communicate with the AFD leader, Alice Weidel, in the X spaces on January 9.
Musk, one of US President-elect Donald Trump’s most sensible advisers, has been commenting on German politics on his social media platform X for several days.
He has called Scholz a “fool” and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier an “undemocratic tyrant.”
Scholz said insults from media spaces were commonplace.
“As social democrats, we have become accustomed since the last century to rich media sellers who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not hesitate to explain their opinions,” Scholz told Stern, referring to his central social democratic party (SPD). .
Although their voices are more successful as the media evolve, the scenario is not new, said the chancellor. “You have to keep calm,” he said while several German politicians expressed their irritation for the terrible experience.
Musk, in 2022, made a private request to Scholz to make a phone call related to the federal government’s plans to subsidize electric charging stations across the country. Tesla, owned by Musk, operates its own charging station in Germany.
“It is no secret that Tesla opposed government investment in electric charge stations in Germany,” said the chancellor, suggesting that Musk’s comments emerged from corporate discontent.
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck had more clarity about Elon Musk.
“Hands off our democracy, Mr. Musk!” Habeck told German news magazine Der Spiegel when asked whether Musk was a threat to Germany. He criticized Musk’s outspoken support for the far-right AfD.
Billionaire Habeck, who is expected to play a prominent role in the next U. S. administration, is doing his best to advance his own interests.
“The combination of immense wealth, control over information and networks, the use of artificial intelligence and the will to ignore rules is a frontal attack on our democracy,” said Habeck.
He also described the recent Musk article that AFD approved as “horrible” and warned that his attempts to influence German politics do not underestimate themselves.
“The richest man in the world, owner of one of the hardest communication platforms, blatantly supports a holiday that is partly right. We must not make the mistake of rejecting it,” he said.
mk/wd (dpa)