German politicians attack Elon Musk article praising far-right AfD

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up German politics myFT Digest — delivered straight to your inbox.

German politicians have criticized media organization Axel Springer for publishing an opinion piece by Elon Musk praising the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), as anger grows over the tech billionaire’s growing advocacy of right-wing populist parties in Europe.

Matthias Miers, general secretary of Germany’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD), said Axel Springer’s proposal was “shameful and dangerous”. musk A platform published his articles in one of the newspapers, Welt am Sonntag.

“It is unacceptable that foreign billionaires try to influence our political landscape and support parties that undermine our democratic values,” he told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

Musk’s pro-AfD stint comes less than two months before a snap election in Germany that led to the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholes’ three-party coalition. There are polls AFD Scholes’ SPD came third, behind the center-right Christian Democrats.

Andreas Audrecht, a senior Greens MP leading the party’s election campaign, took to X to criticize the article.

“It hurts our democracy when Herr Musk, the Chinese state or Moscow’s troll factories destroy our democratic discourse,” he said. “That’s why right-wing extremists in the AfD love so much.”

Welt comments editor Eva Marie Koegel announced over the weekend that she was resigning, as a sign of anger over the decision to publish masked pieces generated in the paper’s newsroom.

“Journalism lives on independence and credibility, Die Welt lives on its reputation,” said Mika Beuster, head of the DJV, the German journalists’ association. “They’re all being tossed, with a bang, into the dustbin.”

Musk, a close adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump and A friend Matthias Döfner, chief executive of Axel Springer, used the op-ed article to praise the AfD, large parts of which have been designated extremist by German domestic intelligence and kept under surveillance. The party also advocated mass deportation of foreigners.

Musk described Germany as on the brink of economic and cultural collapse and said the AfD was the country’s “last glimmer of hope”, praising policies of market deregulation, tax cuts and cutting red tape, as well as opposing immigration.

He also rejected the notion that the AfD is “right-wing extremist”, noting that its co-leader, Alice Wiedel, is in a same-sex relationship with a Sri Lankan woman. “Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!” He wrote

Musk has invested heavily in Germany, where Tesla has built its first European gigafactory. But his plan to expand the plant in Brandenburg ran up against stiff local resistance this year, including from the state’s AfD politicians.

The article’s publication comes just a week after Musk retweeted a video by a German right-wing activist, adding: “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Weidel replied: “Yes! You’re absolutely right!”

The AfD is the latest European hard-right organization to win Musk’s support.

Nigel Farage recently suggested that Musk could donate to reform UK, telling the BBC that his team was in “ongoing discussions” with the tech mogul after the pair met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

He became embroiled in a row between Farage and Conservative Party leader Kimmy Badenoch, placing a fact-check warning on Badenoch’s tweets in which he claimed Reform UK had falsified its membership numbers.

Earlier this year, Musk praised Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, describing her as “someone who is more beautiful on the inside than on the outside” and “genuine, honest and thoughtful”. He reciprocated by praising her “valuable talent”.

Insiders at Axel Springer, which also owns Politico, rejected criticism that publishing the article was giving Musk and the far right a platform.

“He owns Twitter and can reach 200 million people with one tweet,” said one. “K Welt will give him a platform? He is a platform. It’s better to publish it on our platform where we can defend it and put it forward with our own opinion.”