Elon Musk
heaps praise on AfD’s Alice Weidel during live talk on X
X owner and
far-right politician appear to agree on everything, as Musk faces accusations
of meddling in German election
Kate
Connolly in Berlin
Thu 9 Jan
2025 15.22 EST
Elon Musk
has praised the co-leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland
party, as he repeated his claim that “only the AfD can save Germany” during a
controversial live talk on his social media platform X.
The virtual
encounter between Musk and Alice Weidel on Thursday took place amid growing
criticism over the US billionaire’s vocal support of far-right,
anti-establishment parties across Europe, and accusations he is meddling in the
campaign for Germany’s 23 February election.
In a
conversation that was at times wooden and at times almost flirtatious, Musk
heaped praise on the anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin AfD, which is second in the
polls with 21.5%, behind only the conservative CDU/CSU. He mispronounced the
party leader’s name as “Weedel” throughout the encounter.
The almost
75-minute conversation covered everything from energy policy and education to
their joint wish to slash German bureaucracy and prevent illegal immigration.
Douglas Adams, Schopenhauer, the meaning of life, whether Adolf Hitler was a
socialist or a far-right extremist and how to solve the Israel-Palestine
conflict were also mulled over at length.
Musk and
Weidel took swipes at “woke” views, and appeared to agree on everything –
including the need to end the war in Ukraine, with Musk claiming: “President
Trump is going to solve that conflict very quickly.”
Pressed as
to “with what measures” this may happen, Musk appeared slightly flustered. “To
be clear, this is up to President Trump. He is the commander in chief … I don’t
want to speak for him … but it does require strong leadership in the States to
get it done.”
Asked by
Weidel when he might “be ready to have human expeditions to Mars”, Musk said he
expected to send uncrewed space ships to the planet in about two years, and
crewed ships in approximately four.
He said his
aim was for “Martians” to be able to rescue earthlings “when there’s an
emergency … just like America rescued Europe in world war two”.
Weidel
wrapped the conversation up after Musk had used Douglas Adams to outline his
philosophy of life (“the question is more important than the answer”) and told
her of his teenage struggles with Schopenhauer.
Musk has
been regularly commenting on German politics since last month, when he endorsed
the AfD, which has been classified as rightwing extremist by German
intelligence.
He described
the president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as a “tyrant” for criticising the AfD
and said the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, should resign after a deadly car attack
on a Christmas market in Magdeburg in which six people died.
Last week he
authored an opinion piece in the Welt am Sonntag, in which he appeared to
justify the AfD’s politics, and said it was wrong to label the party as far
right.
Weidel and
other party leaders appeared emboldened after Trump’s US election victory in
November. Musk’s endorsement of the party seems to have buoyed the AfD further,
say analysts, and could boost its acceptance among the German electorate.
Before
Thursday’s talk on XSpace, the European Commission had said it would take a
close look as to whether the discussion possibly violated its Digital Services
Act (DSA). A spokesperson for the DSA said there was no objection to the
discussion as such, rather its interest lay in the speculation that X was
showing partiality towards certain types of subject matter.
A pressure
group called LobbyControl, which campaigns for more transparency in European
politics, said it was specifically scrutinising whether the discussion breached
German campaign finance regulation, suggesting it could be viewed as political
advertising.
Heightened
tension over the recent perceived interference of Musk in German politics led
Germany’s lower chamber of parliament to investigate whether the digital
discussion could be deemed illegal.
A
spokesperson for Weidel denied the charges, saying the talk did not amount to
an illegal party donation, but was taking place as a legitimate expression of
free speech, which had not been choreographed.
Germany’s
federal network agency said it would be monitoring whether any algorithms on
the platform were being manipulated before, during or after the discussion and
would pass any relevant information on to the DSA.
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