What did Elon Musk write about the right-wing German AFD party?
The tech mogul seems to have made it his mission to support political parties across the US and Europe that align with his views.
Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and owner of X (formerly Twitter), has sparked controversy by penning an op-ed for the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in support of the extreme far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. In his article, Musk doubled down on his earlier endorsement of the AfD, calling it “the last spark of hope” for Germany.
The tech billionaire went on to praise the AfD’s positions on migration, which both the party and Musk’s Rpeublican home resonate with. He argued that the party “represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel that their concerns are ignored by the establishment.”
Musk claimed that the AfD addresses current problems without the “political correctness that often obscures the truth.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classified the AfD at the national level as a suspected extremist organization in 2021. Despite this, Musk maintains that the AfD’s principles reflect “the principles that made Tesla and SpaceX successful”
What is the AfD party?
Anti-immigration is the party’s central stance, particularly opposing Muslim immigration to Germany. The party’s draft election manifesto proposes a “Dexit” (German exit from the EU) in a Brexit-like fashion, aiming to replace the EU with a “Europe of fatherlands” - an association of states with a common market and economic community.
The party regularly courts Germany’s former Nazi past. For two examples the party’s head in the eastern state of Thuringia, Björn Höcke, described Berlin’s Holocaust memorial as a “monument of shame”, while the creator of the party said Germany “should be proud” of its soldiers in both World Wars, both started by Germany and the second resulting in the Holocaust.
Musk’s endorsement of the AfD comes at a crucial time, with Germany facing a snap federal election in February following the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s coalition government. His intervention has been met with significant backlash from German politicians across the political spectrum, with some accusing him of interfering in German politics
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