Billionaire’s interest in Europe divides opinion – while some leaders raise alarm, Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni insists there is ‘no danger’.
Elon Musk has urged German voters to get behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in next month’s national election during a broadcast with the party’s leader.
The United States technology billionaire, who is set to have a role in the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, live-streamed his conversation with Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor, via his social media platform X on Thursday.
More than 190,000 X accounts tuned into the chat, which saw Musk introducing Weidel as “the leading candidate to run Germany”, warning viewers that they should vote for the party “otherwise things are going to get very, very much worse in Germany”.
“Only AfD can save Germany. End of story,” he said.
Musk, who is expected to have an advisory role in Trump’s administration, has been increasingly vocal in his support for far-right parties in Europe, demonstrating particular interest in economic powerhouse Germany, where he opened his automotive company Tesla’s first European plant in 2022.
During the chat, Musk doubled down on his endorsement of the AfD, an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party, having previously shared his thoughts in X posts and an opinion piece published by the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
Musk and Weidel agreed that Germany was hamstrung by a “crazy” energy policy, excessive bureaucracy and uncontrolled immigration, comparing the media’s treatment of the AfD to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s treatment of pro-Jewish voices in the 1930s.
“People love to censor things they don’t agree with,” said Musk, who insisted that Weidel was proposing “nothing outrageous”.
Musk, who describes himself as a libertarian, has called German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier a “tyrant” for criticising the AfD and called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to resign after a deadly car attack on a German Christmas market last month.
Both men belong to the centre-left Social Democrats party.
‘Lies and misinformation’
Leaders across Europe have expressed alarm over Musk’s political interventions. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has accused Musk of undermining democracy, without directly naming him, while France’s foreign minister urged the European Union to use its laws more robustly to guard against outside interference.
But Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who heads the far-right anti-immigration Brothers of Italy party, defended Musk on Thursday.
“I do not see this danger to democracy. Elon Musk is a very well-known and wealthy person who expresses his ideas,” she said.
Meloni’s government is currently weighing up a possible communications security contract relying on Starlink, part of Musk’s SpaceX business.
The Italian leader says that Italy is facing a dilemma over how to protect its sensitive communications as there are currently no Italian or EU-backed alternative systems to Starlink.
But the project has been sharply criticised by opposition parties questioning whether the handling of such communications should be entrusted to a Musk company.
“Is the problem with SpaceX that it’s a private company, or is it Elon Musk’s political ideas?” Meloni asked.
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