The main German leaders, Chancellor OIaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens), on Tuesday denounced the continued support of American billionaire Elon Musk for the German far-right party AfD. Parliamentary elections are scheduled within two weeks.
“You, the citizens, decide. It is not the owners of social networks who decide,” the Chancellor said in a speech to be broadcast on Tuesday evening for the New Year. “It is not the loudest shouter who will determine what happens in Germany. Well, the vast majority of decent and reasonable people.”
His vice chancellor, Minister of Economy and Climate Change Robert Habeck, lashed out in his own New Year’s message at the “logic” and “system” that Musk set up. “Musk strengthens those who weaken Europe. A weak Europe is in the interests of those for whom regulation is an unwanted restriction of their power.”
The American billionaire is exerting increasing influence on future president Donald Trump in the US. Musk, who in addition to social network X also owns car company Tesla and space company SpaceX, will even head a ‘department for government efficiency’.
On Saturday, the Welt newspaper published an opinion piece by the American billionaire, in which he called the German far-right party AfD “the last glimpse of hope” for Germany. On Monday evening, the world’s richest man again voiced his support for Germany’s far-right party X, under his pseudonym Kekius Maximus, and said AfD will achieve an “epic victory.”
Musk also called the German president an “anti-democratic tyrant”. He commented on the false claims of a pro-AfD influencer who proclaimed that President Frank-Walter Steinmeier would annul the election results.