Backlash builds as Elon Musk endorses Germany’s far right
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” said the key Donald Trump ally.
Elon Musk is backing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), triggering an outcry in Berlin in the run-up to a critical snap election.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” the billionaire X owner wrote on the platform on Friday in the latest of a series of endorsements of European far-right parties.
Musk has recently supported European populist-right politicians in increasingly clear terms, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Earlier this week, Farage boasted that Musk is “right behind” him — and raised the prospect that the tech tycoon would financially back his Reform UK party.
The AfD endorsement also served as a stark rebuke by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s most powerful adviser of the conservative alliance that is likely to lead Germany following a snap election set for Feb. 23.
Friedrich Merz, the conservative candidate leading the race to become next chancellor, has portrayed himself as leader who’d be able to make “deals” with Trump despite European fears the president elect will start a trade war and withdraw American military support for Ukraine.
AfD leaders, of course, were pleased by Musk’s endorsement.
“Yes! You are perfectly right!” Alice Weidel, the AfD’s chancellor candidate, posted on X shortly after Musk’s missive. Weidel then plugged a recent interview she gave on, as she put it, how “socialist [Angela] Merkel ruined our country” and how “the Soviet European Union” was destroying Germany.
Among mainstream political leaders in Germany, however, the post prompted a backlash.
“We have freedom of speech, which also applies to multi-billionaires,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a press conference in Berlin. “But freedom of speech also means you can say things that are not right and do not contain good political advice.”
The AfD is polling in second place at 19 percent ahead of Germany’s early election, potentially setting it up to become the largest opposition party in the next parliament. Germany’s conservative alliance leads the race by a wide margin with 31 percent.
Musk, who is closely allied to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has longed expressed sympathy for the AfD — but, also, some uncertainty about the party’s stances.
“Why is there such a negative reaction from some about AfD?” the tech billionaire wrote on X in June. “They keep saying ‘far right,’ but the policies of AfD that I’ve read about don’t sound extremist. Maybe I’m missing something.”
Despite the newfound love between Musk and the AfD, the far-right party has opposed Tesla’s Gigafactory in the German state of Brandenburg, surrounding Berlin.
“We will not tear it down, but of course it is a problem,” the party’s front-runner in the state said during a debate in the run-up to the Brandenburg state election in September, in which the AfD finished second with over 29 percent of the vote.
The AfD is surging despite its growing radicalism and persistent warnings from mainstream leaders that it is an extremist, even Nazi, party. Growing support for the far right comes despite state-level domestic intelligence authorities classifying some local branches of the party as extremist organizations aiming to undermine German democracy.
Musk lent his support to the AfD while reposting a video by Naomi Seibt, a German right-wing influencer known for her closeness to the AfD and for denying climate change caused by humans. German media have dubbed her the “anti-Greta,” in reference to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and in the video reposted by Musk, she described the German Greens’ environmental policies as “eco-socialist national suicide.”
Seibt’s video mainly consisted of an attack on the conservative leader Merz, who is leading the race to become the next chancellor, for his refusal to work with the AfD and his supposed criticism of what she called the “pro freedom” policies of Elon Musk and Argentina’s President Javier Milei.
Christian Lindner, the former finance minister and leader of the fiscally conservative Free Democratic Party (FDP), praised Musk’s ideas on cutting regulation and bureaucracy while warning against the AfD.
“Elon, I’ve initiated a policy debate inspired by ideas from you and Milei,” Lindner posted on X. “While migration control is crucial for Germany, the AfD stands against freedom, business – and it’s a far-right extremist party. Don’t rush to conclusions from afar.”
Musk, a U.S. citizen — who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help elect Trump — is considering donating up to $100 million to support Farage’s right-wing party in the U.K., according to media reports.
He wouldn’t be able to support the AfD in the same way. Non-EU foreigners are only allowed to donate up to a maximum of €1,000, according to German law.
This story has been updated.