Elon Musk doubles down on support for German far-right party AfD

Three state chapters of the AfD in the former communist east are classified as extremist and are under surveillance by Germany’s domestic intelligence service

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Angela Cullen

Published Dec 29, 2024  •  2 minute read

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill on Decm 05, 2024 in Washington, DC. Photo by Anna Moneymaker /Getty Images

Elon Musk reiterated his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in a newspaper opinion piece published less than two months before Germans go to the polls.

“The AfD, even though it is described as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are ignored by the establishment,” Musk, the world’s richest person, wrote in comments published on Saturday by Welt am Sonntag. “It addresses the problems of the day — without the political correctness that often obscures the truth.”

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A key adviser and major donor to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Musk has extensive business interests in Germany, including a Tesla Inc. factory in the town of Gruenheide, near Berlin. After frequently railing against German bureaucracy in the past, he’s waded deeper into the country’s politics in recent weeks, disparaging Chancellor Olaf Scholz in posts on his social media platform X, and using populist tropes to clamor for the anti-immigrant party that’s campaigning for a German exit from the European Union and the euro.

Three state chapters of the AfD in the former communist east are classified as extremist and are under surveillance by Germany’s domestic intelligence service.

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“The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy that prioritizes integration and the preservation of German culture and security,” Musk wrote. “This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalization. A nation must preserve its core values and cultural heritage in order to remain strong and united.”

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The piece was cited by Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor in the nation’s Feb. 23 snap elections, on Musk’s social network X, which the billionaire subsequently reposted to his 210 million followers — more than three times the number of registered voters in Germany.

Musk is making a major mistake when he argues that it’s wrong to classify AfD as extremist, Welt’s designated Editor-in-Chief Jan Philipp Burgard wrote in a rebuttal published simultaneously. Burgard pointed to the party’s positions on ties with the European Union and Russia, as well on immigration. The opinion section’s editor, Eva Marie Kogel, earlier resigned in protest at the decision to publish Musk’s words.

“I cannot remember a comparable case of interference in the election campaign of a friendly country in the history of Western democracies,” German opposition leader Friedrich Merz told the Funke media group on Sunday. It would be easy to recognize the contradictions in the AfD’s positions “if you don’t inform yourself solely via your own social media channels,” he said.

On X, Merz called Musk’s electioneering “intrusive and presumptuous.”

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Merz is in a strong position to become Germany’s next chancellor, according to the latest Bloomberg polling average. Support for his conservative bloc stands at 31%, while the AfD has seen its backing climb to almost 20%. Scholz’s Social Democrats trail in third place, with almost 17% support.

(Updates with editor’s resignation in sevenths paragraph and comment from Germany’s opposition leader in eighth)

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