On October 5, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, the United States, at the scene of Trump’s assassination in July, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk spoke to Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump Donald Trump gestures behind protective glass at a rally.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Tesla CEO Muskmillionaire donor and advisor to President-elect Donald Trumpis currently seeking to influence German elections and has posted messages of support on X for the country’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
in a postal “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk wrote on Thursday night.
Musk, who has more than 200 million followers on the site he owns, made the comments while sharing a post from far-right influencer Naomi Seibt, who claimed Germany’s “next chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) Shocked by the idea “Germany should follow the example of Elon Musk and Javier Mire,” referring to the Argentine president.
The Guardian stated that Seibt has a history of promoting white nationalist ideology. reported beforeand denied its validity scientific consensus Around climate change, that it’s driven by fossil fuel emissions.
In a post on of the neo-Nazi party.”
“The AfD’s mission is to restore the image of the Nazi movement,” Murphy wrote. He added that one of the party’s leaders had a license plate that was an “open tribute to Hitler” and another “described Judaism as Germany’s ‘internal enemy'”.
Musk and Tesla’s investor relations team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
GermanyThe left-wing coalition collapsed in November, and the AfD currently ranks second in polls ahead of February’s election. Across Germany, the AfD has a strong presence in state elections, but other parties have generally rejected alliances with it.
According to the Pew Research Center, “the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been promoting Opposition to arms delivery and appealed to Ukraine end sanctions Russia,” Musk shared the same view.
Far-right parties have also made gains in the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and elsewhere. Many cheered Trump’s election, which Musk financially supported by donating $277 million to the campaign and related Republican causes.
Tesla shares are up about 75% since Trump’s victory. transcend Last week hit a record high for 2021.
The Alternative for Germany has It is said Criticism of Tesla and its factory outside Berlin. The party claims that many of Tesla’s thousands of workers there commute from Poland or Berlin, limiting economic benefits to local Brandenburg communities.
The Alternative for Germany generally views electric cars as part of an ideological climate movement that is detrimental to the German auto industry.
Europe has been a tough market for Tesla this year. Data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association shows that Tesla car sales fell by 40.9% in November, exceeding the 9.5% decline in overall sales of pure electric vehicles.
Elsewhere in Europe, Musk backed right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni and expressed support for British populist politician Nigel Farage, the head of Reform UK. In South America, Musk supported and developed a friendship with Argentinian President Mire, who calls himself an anarcho-capitalist.
