With four weeks to go until Germany heads to the polls for its federal election, Elon Musk has just given his third public endorsement of the country’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Beaming into the hall live from the States at the party’s campaign launch in Halle (Saale), Saxony-Anhalt, the tech billionaire appeared to loud whoops and cheers from the crowd.
Referencing Germany’s Nazi past, he declared that there is ‘too much of a focus on past guilt and we should move beyond that.’
Musk started by stating he was ‘very excited’ for the party and repeated his belief that the party is ‘the best hope’ for Germany. Praising the country for having a culture that was ‘unique, and special and good’, US President Donald Trump’s new efficiency tsar proclaimed that ‘it’s okay to be proud to be German’. Referencing Germany’s Nazi past, he declared that there is ‘too much of a focus on past guilt and we should move beyond that.’
Criticising the EU, Musk stated that there was ‘too much control’ from Brussels and the ‘global elite’ – although he didn’t elaborate on who that ‘global elite’ was. Endorsing the party’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, who he hosted for a fireside chat on his platform X two weeks ago, he said he ‘very much [hoped] the AfD does well and that Alice Weidel becomes chancellor. That would be very good for Germany.’ ‘You’re doing the right thing, is what I’m saying,’ he continued.
Rounding off his speech with a ‘Vielen Dank’, he proceeded to punch the air, saying: ‘Let’s go, let’s go! Fight for a great future for Germany! Yay!’ Weidel proceeded to thank him and wish him and Trump ‘all the best’ to ‘make America great again’ – quite the about turn for a historically America-sceptic party such as hers.
Musk added a few more words, saying Germany’s election could decide the fate of Europe, ‘or even the entire world’. He encouraged AfD supporters to convince friends and family to vote for the party: ‘The future of civilisation could hang on this election.’ Praising the far-right party’s policies as ‘common sense’, Musk then proceeded to attack the current government of Olaf Scholz, baselessly claiming it was ‘suppressing’ freedom of speech ‘very aggressively’ and had put people in jail for ‘mild criticisms of politicians’. This is, he said, a ‘totalitarian approach’.
Musk’s previous two endorsements of the AfD, once over Christmas and secondly during his fireside chat with Weidel earlier this month, drew alarm and fierce criticism from Germany’s establishment parties. Some even accused him of foreign interference and election meddling. No doubt, his livestream to Halle today will prompt much the same response.
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