{"id":44733,"date":"2024-12-21T03:35:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T03:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=44733"},"modified":"2024-12-21T03:35:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T03:35:08","slug":"outrage-as-elon-musk-claims-only-afd-can-save-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/12\/21\/outrage-as-elon-musk-claims-only-afd-can-save-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Outrage as Elon Musk claims \u2018only AfD can save Germany\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Elon Musk has caused outrage in Berlin after appearing to endorse the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk, who has been named by Donald Trump to co-lead a commission aimed at reducing the size of the US federal government, wrote on his social media platform X: \u201cOnly the AfD can save\u00a0Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He reposted a video by a German rightwing influencer, Naomi Seibt, who criticised\u00a0Friedrich Merz, the leader of the conservative Christian Democrats who has the best chance of becoming the next German chancellor, and praised Javier Milei, the libertarian president of Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German health minister, Karl Lauterbach, called Musk\u2019s decision to wade into the German political debate weeks before the\u00a0snap election\u201cundignified and highly problematic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s largest economy is expected to go to the polls on 23 February after the collapse last month of Olaf Scholz\u2019s centre-left coalition. The AfD is running in second place in opinion polls. Elements of the party have been classed as rightwing extremists by Germany\u2019s domestic intelligence services, and mainstream parties have vowed to refuse to work with the AfD at national level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German government issued only a perfunctory response to Musk\u2019s post, noting that it had registered it, but a spokesperson refused to add any further comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a press conference in Berlin, Scholz responded indirectly to the post, saying: \u201cWe have freedom of speech here. That also applies to multimillionaires. Freedom of speech also means that you\u2019re able to say things that aren\u2019t right and do not contain good political advice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German former MEP Elmar Brokdismissed Musk\u2019s comment as \u201cthe world domination fantasies of the American tech kings\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late on Friday, after at least\u00a0two people were killed and scores wounded\u00a0in a suspected terror attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, Musk doubled down, tweeting: \u201cScholz should resign immediately. Incompetent fool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauterbach accused Musk of election interference and called for authorities to \u201ckeep a close eye on the goings-on on X\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cIt is very disturbing, the way in which the platform X, which I use very intensively myself, is increasingly being used to spread the political positions and goals of Mr Musk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Larry<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most direct response to the Musk tweet came from Christian Lindner, the head of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), who was sacked as finance minister by Scholz over deep disagreements around fiscal management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindner wrote on X: \u201cElon, I\u2019ve initiated a policy debate inspired by ideas from you and Milei. While migration control is crucial for Germany, the AfD stands against freedom, business \u2013 and it\u2019s a far-right extremist party. Don\u2019t rush to conclusions from afar. Let\u2019s meet, and I\u2019ll show you what the FDP stands for. CL\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, the AfD was\u00a0expelled from a pan-European parliamentary group of populist far-right partiesafter a string of controversies, including a comment by the senior AfD figure that the Nazi SS were \u201cnot all criminals\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ID group, which includes France\u2019s far-right National Rally, Italy\u2019s Lega, Austria\u2019s Freedom party, Geert Wilders\u2019 Dutch Freedom party and Vlaams Belang in Belgium, said it \u201cno longer want[ed] to be associated\u201d with such incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk has previously expressed backing for other anti-immigration forces across Europe, including the UK\u2019s Reform party and Italy\u2019s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has also previously voiced enthusiastic support for Milei, who in his first year as Argentina\u2019s president has cut public spending and axed tens of thousands of public sector jobs, and plunged many households\u00a0into economic despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice Weidel, the head of the AfD, who is standing as its candidate for chancellor, reposted Musk\u2019s comment, writing to him: \u201cYes! You are perfectly right @elonmusk!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to a recent interview she gave on Trump with the news organisation Bloomberg, Weidel said Musk should note \u201chow socialist [Angela] Merkel ruined our country, how the Soviet European Union destroys the country\u2019s economic backbone and malfunctioning Germany\u201d. She wished Musk and Trump a happy Christmas and \u201call the best for the upcoming tenure\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year Musk criticised the German government and its struggle to tackle illegal migration, one of the main topics on the election campaign agenda. He has also fired off personal jibes against Scholz and his economics minister, Robert Habeck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, posted a photograph of himself and the party\u2019s treasurer\u00a0meeting Musk\u00a0at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and claimed Musk was prepared to provide financial support to bolster his party\u2019s chances of entering government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk has caused outrage in Berlin after appearing to endorse the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland. Musk, who has been named by Donald Trump to co-lead a commission aimed at reducing the size of the US federal government, wrote on his social media platform X: \u201cOnly the AfD can save\u00a0Germany.\u201d He reposted a video […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,12487,4173,5304,5489,6942,8989,8178,10387,8924,1425,8927,5110,9331,9233,10000,5262,11399,6576,10339,5196,911,4119,6621,9505,1195,5934,8123,120,9127,12354,5321,5575,4028,66,8016,2264,12634,6663,10321,6094,8329,9372,11493,1392,7407,9515,10009,3874,7661,10742,9833,8007,12998,65,7259,3773,1940,7202,8353,8386,3805,3174,5333,11235,8297,7217,912,5349,10041,10236,11089,12605,7231,6348,8033,10415,36,594,10353],"class_list":["post-44733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-agenda","tag-argentina","tag-attack","tag-austria","tag-belgium","tag-berlin","tag-bloomberg","tag-campaign","tag-chance","tag-chancellor","tag-christian","tag-christmas","tag-city","tag-collapse","tag-conservative","tag-cut","tag-debate","tag-democrats","tag-dutch","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-elon-musk","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-expelled","tag-eye","tag-farage","tag-february","tag-finance","tag-florida","tag-france","tag-freedom","tag-germany","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-government","tag-health","tag-households","tag-illegal","tag-immigration","tag-incompetent","tag-influencer","tag-interview","tag-italy","tag-jobs","tag-killed","tag-kings","tag-lead","tag-mar-a-lago","tag-market","tag-meeting","tag-meloni","tag-merz","tag-migration","tag-musk","tag-nazi","tag-nigel-farage","tag-olaf-scholz","tag-outrage","tag-platform","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-rally","tag-reform-party","tag-resign","tag-sacked","tag-snap","tag-social-media","tag-speech","tag-tech","tag-terror","tag-uk","tag-union","tag-us","tag-video","tag-work","tag-world","tag-who","tag-x"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44735,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44733\/revisions\/44735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}