Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk went on an uproar after supporting Germany’s far-right party in a primary newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the newspaper’s opinion editor in a gesture of protest.
Germany will vote in a snap election on Feb. 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed for a month in a standoff over how to revitalize the country’s stagnant economy.
Musk’s guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag —a sister publication of POLITICO owned by the Axel Springer Group — published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month he supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
“The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated comment.
He added that the far-right party “can lead the country towards a long term where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are mere wishes, but a reality. “
The Tesla Motors CEO wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country’s situation.
The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party.
The technology billionaire challenged in his opinion piece the party’s public image.
“The image of the AfD as a right-wing extremist is obviously false, given that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex spouse from Sri Lanka. Does this remind you of Hitler? Please!”
Musk’s comment sparked a debate in the German media about the limits of relaxed discourse, and the newspaper’s own opinion editor announced his resignation, apparently on Musk’s social media platform, X.
“I always enjoyed leading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print,” Eva Marie Kogel wrote.
A critical article by the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Jan Philipp Burgard, accompanied Musk’s opinion piece.
“Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his curative approach, according to which the AfD can save Germany, is absolutely wrong,” Burgard wrote.
Responding to a request for comment from the German Press Agency, dpa, the current editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, and Burgard — who is due to take over on Jan. 1 — said in a joint statement that the discussion over Musk’s piece was “very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.”
“This will continue to be the direction of the ‘world’ in the future. We will even more decisively expand ‘Die Welt’ as a forum for such debates,” they wrote to dpa.
Musk waded heavily into the 2024 U.S. presidential election, putting millions into electing President-elect Donald Trump. Trump rewarded him after the election by naming Musk to head the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with Vivek Ramaswamy.
Musk and Ramaswamy discussed over the weekend on X, the social media platform that Musk owns, about H-1B visas, which are implemented for high-skilled workers. Musk, who came to the U. S. on an H-1B visa, defended the use of the policy in the face of backlash from Laura Loomer and other Trump supporters who tightened immigration policies.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said he “always liked visas,” even though he tried to replace the program the first time.
“I have a lot of H-1B visas on my properties. I have the H-1B. I’ve used it many times. It’s a wonderful program,” Trump told the newspaper.