The leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Friday welcomed a social media post by Elon Musk in which the American tech billionaire expressed support for her party.
Musk, a prominent supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, opined on his “X” platform on Friday morning that “Only the AfD can save Germany.”
Alice Weidel, who is running for chancellor as co-leader of the AfD, responded to Musk an hour later, saying:
“Yes! You are perfectly right! Please also have a look into my interview on President Trump, how socialist Merkel ruined our country, how the Soviet European Union destroys the countries [sic] economic backbone and malfunctioning Germany!”
What is the AfD? The AfD is officially suspected of being an extreme-right organization by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesverfassungsschutz or BfV).
In the eastern German states of Saxony and Thuringia, it is not only suspected of being an extremist organization, but officially categorized as such.
In January 2024, AfD figures including Weidel’s former political aide Roland Hartwig were reported to have attended a clandestine meeting of European extreme-right figures including Austrian identitarian Martin Sellner at which a “masterplan” for the deportation of millions of people with migratory backgrounds, including naturalized German citizens, was discussed.
The AfD is currently polling at around 19% ahead of the German federal election in February, second only to conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at around 33%.
But all the other parties currently in the German parliament have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD.
It’s not the first time that Musk has addressed the AfD. At the start of June, he posted: “They keep saying ‘far right,’ but the policies of AfD that I’ve read about don’t sound extremist. Maybe I’m missing something.”
Musk: support for Trump, Farage and now the AfD? After backing President-elect Trump’s reelection campaign in the United States this year, Musk has also expressed support for the United Kingdom’s far-right “Reform UK” and its populist leader Nigel Farage.
This week, Farage told the BBC that his party is in “open negotiations” with Musk regarding a potential donation, which Times has reported could be as high as £78m ($100m, €96m), by the far the biggest political donation in British political history, sparking calls for the UK to tighten its electoral rules.
In Germany, state security services have warned that the upcoming federal election could be targeted disinformation campaigns not only from Russia, but also from the United States.
Meanwhile, the leader of Germany’s neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), Christian Lindner, sparked debate this month when he appeared to praised the controversial views and activities of Musk and right-wing populist Argentinian President Javier Milei.
“Both Milei and Musk represent views which are in part extreme, absurd and even disturbing,” he wrote in the Handelsblatt financial newspaper. “Yet it has to be said: behind the provocations is a disruptive energy which is lacking in Germany.”
mf/lo (AFP, dpa)
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