Elon Musk backs Germany’s far-right AfD

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Elon Musk has waded into Germany’s election campaign by backing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, marking the latest intervention by the US billionaire entrepreneur into politics around the world.

Musk, a close adviser to Donald Trump, on Friday retweeted a video by a German rightwing activist, adding: “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Alice Weidel, the AfD’s leader, responded: “Yes! You are perfectly right.”

The AfD, classified as a suspected extremist organisation by Germany’s domestic intelligence, is poised for big electoral gains in elections scheduled on February 23. The vote, triggered by the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition last month, comes as Europe’s biggest economy comes under heavy strain.

Polls suggest that the AfD could secure about 19 per cent of the vote, trailing the Christian Democrats (CDU) led by Friedrich Merz, who are projected to win about 30 per cent.

Musk has used X to air his political views and amplify rightwing voices. Since buying the platform in 2022, the Tesla and SpaceX chief has lashed out at liberal leaders in countries including the UK, Brazil and Australia, while expressing support for populist leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei.

After recently meeting Musk in Florida, Nigel Farage on Tuesday said the billionaire was giving “serious thought” to providing a donation to his Reform UK party.

Germany has been a frequent target of Musk’s remarks: he has mocked former chancellor Angela Merkel and disparaged Social Democratic candidate Scholz. But he has shown an interest in AfD politicians such as Björn Höcke, the controversial nationalist who led the party to victory in elections in the eastern state of Thuringia in September.

On Friday Musk retweeted a video by Naomi Seibt, a 24-year-old climate change sceptic dubbed the “anti-Greta Thunberg”, which criticises Merz for ruling out forming a coalition with the AfD.

A spokesperson for Merz declined to comment. A spokesperson for the government said they had “taken note”.

Despite Musk’s support, the AfD remains unlikely to come to power in Germany, as all the other parties have said they would not work with it. Founded in 2013 amid the Eurozone debt crisis, the party has since evolved into a hardline nationalist, anti-immigration movement advocating for Germany’s exit from the EU.

The German domestic intelligence agency has designated its branches in Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt as “rightwing extremist”.

Some of its politicians have sparked controversy. Höcke was fined €30,000 this year by two different courts for using banned Nazi slogans. In 2017 he described the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame”.

In an interview with the Financial Times in May, AfD MEP Maximilian Krah said of the SS, the group that ran Adolf Hitler’s extermination camps: “Before I call someone a criminal, I’d really like to know what he did personally.”

Additional reporting by Laura Pitel and Guy Chazan