Elon Musk Livestreams Chat With German Far-Right Leader

U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk livestreamed a chat with German far-right leader Alice Weidel on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.

Why It Matters

Musk, the owner of X, and the CEO of car manufacturer Tesla and space tech company SpaceX, has cozied up to President-elect Donald Trump, especially after his November election win. Now, Musk has grown his influence abroad, becoming increasingly more involved in German politics.

What To Know

On a livestream that peaked at over 200,000 viewers, Musk told Weidel, a co-leader of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and its candidate for chancellor, that he was “strongly recommending that people vote for AfD.”

Musk and Weidel agreed that taxes are too high and there is too much immigration in Germany. They also both thought it was a mistake for the country to shut down nuclear power plants.

“Nothing outrageous has been proposed, just common sense,” Musk said. “People really need to get behind the AfD, otherwise things are going to get very, very much worse in Germany.”

Weidel Distances AfD From The Nazi Party

The AfD party is viewed by many as far right, and, according to Reuters, the party at the national level has been classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as a suspected extremism case starting in 2021. The far-right party has rebuked the designation and claimed it was a politically motivated attempt to discredit the party.

Weidel refuted the idea that the AfD shares any affinity with former German dictator Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.

“The biggest success after that terrible era in our history was to label Adolf Hitler as right and conservative. He was exactly the opposite. He wasn’t a conservative. He wasn’t a libertarian. He was a communist socialist guy,” Weidel claimed during her conversation with Musk.

Musk’s German Newspaper Article

Late last month, an opinion article written by Musk was published in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag.

Musk wrote in the opinion piece, according to an English translation by Reuters, “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!”

The opinion piece follows a statement Musk wrote on X on December 20, “Only the AfD can save Germany.”

What People Are Saying

A German government spokesperson said, as reported by Reuters late last month, that Musk “is trying to influence the federal election” with his X posts and the Welt am Sonntag opinion piece.

The spokesperson did say that Musk is free to express his opinion, but added, “Freedom of opinion also covers the greatest nonsense.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a news conference on December 20 in response to Musk’s X post that day: “We have freedom of opinion—it also goes for multibillionaires, but freedom of opinion also means that you can say things that aren’t right and don’t contain good political advice.”

He added: “I say emphatically that the democratic parties in Germany all see it differently.”

What Happens Next

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier scheduled new elections for February 23, seven months earlier than planned after Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament amid the country’s worsening economic crisis.

Polling shows that AfD is the second-most popular party in Germany while the mainstream conservative Christian Democrats are favored to win the upcoming election.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.