The billionaire published a column in support of the far-right AfD party.
Entrepreneur and close advisor to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, has taken another public step in support of the far-right German political party «Alternative for Germany» (AfD), by publishing a column in support of the party in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which forced the editor of the section to resign in protest, writes The Guardian.
The article in German was published in the newspaper of the media group Axel Springer, which also owns the US political news site Politico.
The publication, which attempts to refute the extremist bias of the AfD, is a continuation of his post on the social platform X, in which he declared last week that «only the AfD can save Germany».
Musk writes that the German economy is «drowned in bureaucracy and stifling regulations». He criticizes the migration and energy policies of the German authorities and sees the AfD's promises as the answer to all these problems. «Germany is at a critical juncture – its future is teetering on the brink of economic and cultural collapse», – Musk is confident.
«The image of the AfD as a right-wing extremist party is clearly wrong, considering that Alice Weidel, the party leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! It seems like Hitler to you?», – the article says.
Weidel, who the party will nominate for the post of chancellor, is an openly lesbian and lives in Biel, Switzerland, with her partner Sarah Bossard, a Swiss film producer of Sri Lankan origin, and is raising two children.
The German national intelligence service has designated the AfD at the national level as being involved in extremism since 2021.
Shortly after the article was published, the editor of the opinion section at H Eva Marie Kogel announced that she had submitted her resignation.
«I have always enjoyed heading the opinion section at Welt and Wams. Today, Welt am Sonntag published an article by Elon Musk. After its publication, I submitted my resignation,” she wrote, adding a link to the article with Musk’s comment.
The AfD has a strong anti-immigration stance and, like new US President Donald Trump, is calling for mass deportations from Germany. Musk had already posted in support of the AfD in December, and the party's hardline stance on immigration resonates with the approach of new US Vice President JD Vance.
On Saturday, the Welt Group management also expressed their opinion.
«Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression. This includes working with the polarization of positions and their journalistic classification», – The newspaper's appointed editor-in-chief, Jan Philipp Burghardt, and Ulf Poschardt, who will take over as publisher on January 1, told Reuters.
According to them, the reader's discussion of Musk's article, which gathered about 340 comments in a few hours, is indicative.
Under Musk's comment, the newspaper published Burghardt's response.
«Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong», – he wrote, referring to the AfD's desire to leave the European Union and seek rapprochement with Russia, as well as appease China.
Mask's support for the AfD, which sees itself as entitled to influence German politics through its «significant investments», could influence the choices Germans make when they go to the polls on February 23.
The far-right AfD is currently in second place in opinion polls. Germany's main, more centrist parties have vowed to avoid any support for the AfD at the national level.