Elon Musk leaves the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill as President-elect Donald Trump speaks with House Republicans in Washington, DC, November 13, 2024.
West Village Kent | Getty Images
American billionaire Musk On Saturday, Germany’s Welt am Sonntag published a guest opinion piece online in support of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, prompting the opinion editor to resign in protest.
In comments published in German by Axel Springer Media Group’s flagship newspaper, Musk expanded on his post on social media platform X last week, claiming that “only the AfD can save Germany.”
“Considering that the party’s leader, Alice Weidel, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka, describing the AfD as right-wing extremists is patently wrong! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on ! Musk said in the article.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has listed the Alternative for Germany as a suspected extremist case at the national level since 2021.
Shortly after the article appeared online, comments editor Eva Marie Kogel wrote on X that she had submitted her resignation, along with a link to the comments.
Jan Philipp Burgard, the paper’s incoming editor, and Ulf Poschardt, who took over as publisher on January 1, told Reuters that “democracy and journalism are flourishing. Depends on free speech.
Alexander Gauland of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party delivers a campaign speech as co-chairman of the AfD federal congress at the Hanover Congress Center (HCC) in Hanover, Germany, on December 2, 2017.
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They said the discussion about Musk’s article, which had about 340 comments just hours after it was published, was “very enlightening.”
Following Musk’s comments, the newspaper published Burgaard’s response.
“Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his treatment, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong,” he wrote, referring to the AfD’s desire to leave the European Union, seek rapprochement with Russia and appease China. desire.
The Alternative for Germany’s support comes from Musk, who has also defended his right to influence German politics through “significant investments”. Take a vote.
The AfD, which ranks second in the polls, may be able to frustrate a center-right or center-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream centrist parties have pledged to reject any support from the AfD at the national level.
