Backlash as Elon Musk claims only far-right AfD can ‘save Germany’

Elon Musk has sparked outrage after describing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the country’s saviour, with figures in Berlin urging the US billionaire to “stay out” of their politics.

In a post on X, Mr Musk’s social media platform, the mogul wrote that “only the AfD can save Germany”. His message topped a video, which he retweeted, of a German right-wing influencer, Naomi Seibt, known for her closeness to the AfD and for denying human-caused climate change.

German health minister Karl Lauterbach, called Mr Musk’s intervention – which came just weeks before a snap election – “undignified and highly problematic”.

Mr Lauterbach accused the tech billionaire of election interference and called for authorities to “keep a close eye on the goings-on on X”.

“It is very disturbing, the way in which the platform X, which I use very intensively myself, is increasingly being used to spread the political positions and goals of Mr Musk”, he said.

Europe’s leading power is expected to vote on 23 February after the centre-left coalition government led by chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed.

Asked about Mr Musk’s comment at a news conference with his Estonian counterpart, Mr Scholz said: “We have freedom of opinion – it also goes for multibillionaires, but freedom of opinion also means that you can say things that aren’t right and don’t contain good political advice.

“I say emphatically that the democratic parties in Germany all see it differently,” he added.

Meanwhile, former German MEP Elmar Brok dismissed Musk’s comment as “the world domination fantasies of the American tech kings”.

The AfD is running second in opinion polls and may be able to thwart either a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have vowed to shun support from the AfD at a national level.

The German government said it had taken note of Mr Musk’s post but declined to give any further comment at its regular press conference.

Matthias Miersch, secretary-general of Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats, told the media outlet T-online that Germany did not need foreign influences or “Trumpism”, adding: “Stay out, Elon.”

Earlier on Friday, the German government was asked whether Mr Musk’s comment would have any consequences for its own presence on X.

Spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann noted that the German government has expressed concern about how X has developed since Mr Musk took over the social media site formerly known as Twitter, but has concluded time and again that it will stay “because it is an important medium to reach and inform people and it brings significant disadvantages if the government, or the chancellor, is not represented on relevant social media”.

In the video shared by the tech billionaire, Ms Seibt criticised Friedrich Merz, chancellor candidate for the conservatives, who are comfortably ahead in the polls.

Mr Musk, the world’s richest person and a major ally of Donald Trump, has already expressed support for other anti-immigration parties across Europe, including Nigel Farage’s Reform in the UK.

Mr Farage posted a photo of himself and Reform’s treasurer meeting Musk at Mr Trump’s Florida residence, and said he was in talks with Mr Musk about financial support. Reports suggest that Mr Musk is considering donating as much as $100 million (£80m).

He would not be able to support the AfD in the same way, because non-EU foreigners are only allowed to donate up to a maximum of €1,000, according to German law.

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Reacting to Mr Musk’s endorsement, Alice Weidel, the AfD’s chancellor candidate, posted on X: “Yes! You are perfectly right!”

Ms Weidel then plugged a recent interview she gave on, as she put it, how “socialist [Angela] Merkel ruined our country” and how “the Soviet European Union” was destroying Germany. Her video was later reposted on Tommy Robinson’s X account alongside the message: “Make Europe Great Again.”

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Mr Musk had already voiced support for the AfD last year, when he attacked the German government’s handling of illegal migration.

“Why is there such a negative reaction from some about AfD?” the tech billionaire wrote on X in June. “They keep saying ‘far right’, but the policies of AfD that I’ve read about don’t sound extremist. Maybe I’m missing something.”

Last month, Mr Musk called for the sacking of Italian judges who had questioned the legality of government measures to prevent irregular immigration.