Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor in protest.
Germany is to vote in an early election on Feb. 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalize the country’s stagnant economy.
Musk’s guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag — a sister publication of POLITICO owned by the Axel Springer Group — published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month he supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
“The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated commentary.
He went on to say the far-right party “can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality.”
The Tesla Motors CEO also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country’s condition.
The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party.
An ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the technology billionaire challenged in his opinion piece the party’s public image.
“The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!”
Musk’s commentary has led to a debate in German media over the boundaries of free speech, with the paper’s own opinion editor announcing her resignation, pointedly on Musk’s social media platform, X.
“I always enjoyed leading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print,” Eva Marie Kogel wrote.
The newspaper was also attacked by politicians and other media for offering Musk, an outsider, a platform to express his views, in favor of the AfD.
Candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, of the Christian Democratic Union, said Sunday that Musk’s comments were “intrusive and presumptuous”. He was speaking to the newspapers of the German Funke Media Group.
Co-leader of the Social Democratic Party, Saskia Esken said that “Anyone who tries to influence our election from outside, who supports an anti-democratic, misanthropic party like the AfD, whether the influence is organized by the state from Russia or by the concentrated financial and media power of Elon Musk and his billionaire friends on the Springer board, must expect our tough resistance,” according to the ARD national public TV network.
Musk’s opinion piece in the Welt am Sonntag was accompanied by a critical article by the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Jan Philipp Burgard.
“Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong,” Burgard wrote.
Responding to a request for comment from the German Press Agency, dpa, the current editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, and Burgard — who is due to take over on Jan. 1 — said in a joint statement that the discussion over Musk’s piece was “very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.”
“This will continue to determine the compass of the “world” in the future. We will develop “Die Welt” even more decisively as a forum for such debates,” they wrote to dpa.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Unlike many of the new right-wing populist parties in Europe, AfD hasn’t managed to fully convince people they have rejected anti-Semitism (even if they are led by a lesbian “married” to a South Asian). Musk should do his homework better before jumping in (cf: coming out for legal immigration when most MAGA supporters oppose both legal and illegal immigration).
I’ve written this before. AfD is the republican party. The left wing media is biased and wants only far left leadership. The current far left parties are losing and tar AfD as nazis when it is slander. AfD wants border control. Leadership wants open borders and importing millions of Muslims who are uneducated, speak neither German nor English, do not believe in free speech or free religion, will be welfare dependent etc. the consequences of this policy has been skyrocketing rape. AfD is for cheap energy and prosperity whereas current t leadership is for dismantling cheap energy and replacing it with solar and wind. AfD is against government speech control. They are for cheap food but the policies of the left are against modern agriculture technology.
Etc
Etc
Etc
The problem is the policies of the left failed, the people realize this and are replacing them with common sense leadership all over Europe. The entrenched left wing power structure – politicians and media – are doing everything in their power to keep conservative leadership from power. We see this clearly in France and Germany where they suppress conservatives and collude to maintain power.
Musk is 100% correct, and the fact that the establishment reacts so strongly only proves how right he is.
Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party.
And this is precisely the problem, and the reason why Germans should vote for AfD and not for the CDU. Because until AfD is taken into a coalition there is no hope for Germany. Only when the CDU accepts that it must work with AfD and accept it as a partner can there be any change. And for that to happen AfD must get so many seats that it’s impossible to continue the ridiculous boycott, as if it’s better to sit with communists and environazis than with “those people”.
It’s the same with Geert Wilders. He is unfortunately not yet prime minister, and not even a minister at all, but at long last his party is a dominant partner in the coalition and able to do some good. Hopefully next time he will get so many seats that the other parties will have no choice but to let him form a government.