Musk: 'Only Afd can save Germany'. Scholz: 'He does not give good political advice'
But the ultra-right opposed the Tesla plant in Brandenburg
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Key points
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After calling the German Chancellor and leader of the Social Democrats, Olaf Scholz, stupid, Elon Musk casts his gaze on Germany again and, from the other side of the Atlantic, sends a message of love to Germany's ethno-right. 'Only Afd can save Germany,' the Pretoria-born techno-billionaire and now Donald Trump's alter ego wrote on his X platform yesterday.
L’influencer
Musk's is a commentary on a two-and-a-half minute video in which German influencer Naomi Seibt attacks Cdu leader Friedrich Merz. Seibt, 24, has links to the Afd, has distinguished herself by her attacks on Greta Thunberg, denies climate change and criticises migration. In 2021 her YouTube channel was closed for violating the guidelines on disinformation and harassment. He reopened it in 2024, but his favourite platform became X, where he no longer runs these risks since Musk has been at the helm. Today he has over 310,000 followers, maybe tomorrow it will be more.
The ultra-right that doesn't want Tesla in Brandenburg
This is not the first time Musk has shown appreciation for Alternative für Deutschland. The party's sections in Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt were classified as right-wing extremist organisations by the German authorities. The same thing was about to happen in Brandenburg in November, but the judgment of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was suspended in view of the early vote in February, after the fall of the Scholz government.
Exponents of Afd (which is second in the polls at 19%, behind only the Cdu) are accused of using slogans echoing those of Hitler and the Nazis, if they do not copy them at all. This is why the other parties have created a cordon sanitaire around the movement, refusing any political collaboration. Not only that, 113 deputies of the Cdu, Greens, Spd and Linke have signed a motion aiming to have the entire party declared anti-constitutional and banned.
At the heart of Alternative für Deutschland's programme is remigration: not only must Germany close to immigrants, but it must send back those who are already in the country but have 'little ability and willingness to integrate', as a resolution of the party's Bavarian branch congress of 23 November puts it in black and white. A theme that may find an echo in Trump's political programme.
