Berlin: Tech billionaire Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections, leading to the resignation of Welt am Sonntag’s opinion editor in protest.
Germany is to vote in an early election on February 23, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalise the country’s stagnant economy.
Elon Musk has involved himself deeply in US politics – now he’s turned his attention to Germany.Credit: AP
Musk’s guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag – a sister publication of Politico, owned by the Axel Springer Group – published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month he supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
“The Alternative for Germany [AfD] is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated commentary.
He went on to say the far-right party “can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality”.
The Tesla Motors chief executive also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country’s condition.
The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-rightists.
An ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, the technology billionaire challenged the party’s public image in his opinion piece.
“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!”
Musk’s commentary has led to a debate in German media over the boundaries of free speech, with the paper’s own opinion editor announcing her resignation, pointedly on Musk’s social media platform, X.
“I always enjoyed leading the opinion section ... Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print,” Eva Marie Kogel wrote.
Eva Marie Kogel, the editor who quit in protest after her paper ran Elon Musk’s opinion piece. Credit: Martin U. K. Lengemann
The newspaper was also attacked by politicians and other media for offering Musk, an outsider, a platform to express views favourable to the AfD.
The Christian Democratic Union candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, labelled Musk’s comments “intrusive and presumptuous” when speaking to newspapers of the Funke Media Group, Germany’s third-largest publisher.
Supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany party hold a placard that reads, “Germany First!” at a rally in Thuringia in August.Credit: Getty Images
Co-leader of the Social Democratic Party Saskia Esken said on the ARD national public TV network: “Anyone who tries to influence our election from outside, who supports an anti-democratic, misanthropic party like the AfD, whether the influence is organised by the state from Russia or by the concentrated financial and media power of Elon Musk and his billionaire friends on the Springer board, must expect our tough resistance.”
She told Reuters: “In Elon Musk’s world, democracy and workers’ rights are obstacles to more profit. We say quite clearly: our democracy is defensible and it cannot be bought.”
Musk’s opinion piece in the Welt am Sonntag was accompanied by a critical article by the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Jan Philipp Burgard. He wrote: “Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong.”
The Reichstag, which houses the German lower House of Parliament. Snap elections are scheduled for February 23.Credit: Getty Images
The current editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, and Burgard – who is due to take over on January 1 – said in a joint statement the German Press Agency, dpa, that the discussion over Musk’s piece was “very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.”
“This will continue to determine the compass of the ‘world’ in the future. We will develop Die Welt even more decisively as a forum for such debates.”
AP, Reuters
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