Elon Musk is not only involved in German politics. Although he is gaining strength among voters, he is trying to break the political deadlock that has kept the country's most prominent far-right party out of government.
Mr Musk will host a live interview on Thursday with Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate of the Alternative for Germany party, known as the AfD, in the country's February 23 snap election. The event, on X on X, the social media platform owned by Mr Musk, has sparked alarm among Germany's political class and sparked legal ramifications.
That is, in large part because Mr Musk offers the AfD a level of publicity and legitimacy it has long been denied in German public life.
The AfD rose to second place in German national polls, supported by nearly a fifth of voters. He has won support for his relentless anti-establishment campaign against the millions of migrants and refugees who have entered the country from the Middle East and Ukraine over the past decade.
Parties with similar pro-immigration messages elsewhere in Europe, such as the Italian Brotherhood and Austria's Freedom Party, rose to federal power. But in Germany, which is still haunted by its Nazi past, no other party will work with the AfD. His candidates they complain about getting less airtime than other candidates on the nation's political talk shows.
At the same time, the AfD has engaged in language and actions that German leaders consider extreme. The party was forced to expel its members for using racist and anti-Semitic expressions. One of its leaders was repeatedly punished by German courts for repeating banned Nazi slogans.
The party is under the surveillance of internal intelligence. Three of its state units, as well as its entire youth wing, are classified as confirmed right-wing extremists, a designation given by intelligence services after extensive surveillance. More than 100 staff working for AfD members of parliament have also been confirmed as right-wing extremists research by a public broadcaster.
In his speech in 2016With the AfD gaining steam ahead of the federal election, former Chancellor Angela Merkel called on all German parties to unite against the AfD. was he saidnot just a problem for his own conservative party, but “a problem for all of us gathered in this house.”
The anti-AfD collective has not disbanded since then. Not after the party surged in the polls and won big state elections in last year's election, nor after it tried to field a more moderate figure as chancellor: Ms Weidel, a former investment banker who lives in Sri Lanka. -Sexual partner and children in Switzerland.
Enter Mr. Musk, who controls a powerful media platform increasingly populated by right-wing influencers. He has become a close confidante of President-elect Donald J. Trump and has begun promoting far-right candidates and parties in Europe in his online posts.
In December, Mr. Musk reposted a video of Naomi Seibt, a 24-year-old German conservative social media star who has a large following on X and YouTube, through it. harsh criticism from climate scientists and efforts to combat global warming. He is also close to the AfD and appears to have helped Mr Musk to support the party.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Mr Musk wrote in a post that included one of his videos.
Ms. Weidel welcomed the support. “You're absolutely right, @elonmusk!” he wrote in his reply.
Mr. Musk has since wrote a review In the German newspaper “Die Welt”, he explained his support for the party, which he called “the last glimmer of hope” for Germany. Here he presented the AfD as a reasonable alternative to the calcified political establishment, not extreme.
“Given that the leader of the party, Alice Weidel, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka, it is clearly wrong to portray the AfD as far-right! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on!” he wrote.
On Thursday evening in Germany, Mr. Musk will go even further, hosting Ms. Weidel in an X “Spaces” conversation similar to the one he had with Mr. Trump last summer.
Mr Musk and many of his X users admire right-wing European political parties such as the AfD. But in many ways the party's positions differ from Mr. Musk's personal and business views and his role as an adviser to Mr. Trump.
There is the AfD famously backed off Against building a factory in Germany for Tesla, the electric car company is also run by Mr Musk. In an interview with American Conservatives this week, Ms. Weidel praised Mr. Trump, but suggested that Germans have become “slaves” to the United States over the past 30 years, including helping America in wars.
“We Germans have been living in this situation for the benefit of the United States for a long time,” he said.
The European Commission said it would investigate Mr Musk's interference in European politics, given his enormous powers through his ownership of X and his close ties to the incoming US president, however permanent they may be.
Europe's center-left political parties – the Social Democrats of Germany – were also released together statement It calls on Brussels to use “all legal means” to protect democracy from disinformation and foreign interference on social media.
Gérard Araud, France's outspoken former ambassador to Washington, is skeptical of Mr Musk's ability to maintain European unity in the face of his attacks on current leaders.
“Europeans, whose relations with the United States are civilized and existential, are paralyzed by the increasingly inflammatory statements of Trump and Musk,” Mr. Araud He wrote in X. “They hope these are just words.”
German leaders have alternated between criticizing Mr Musk and trying to ignore him. Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed the billionaire's attempts to sway German voters in an interview this week. “I don't believe in currying favor with Mr. Musk,” he said. When dealing with social media posts, she added in English that her rule is “Don't feed the troll.”
German voters also seem undeterred, at least so far. Three quarters of respondents Asked by a German broadcaster, Mr. Musk said it was inappropriate for him to comment on German politics.
But the same poll found a majority of respondents believed Mr Musk's efforts would help the AfD in the election.
Stephen Erlanger and Christopher F. Schuetz contributed to the report.