Scholz said what worries him most about Musk's words

The most disturbing thing about Elon Musk's statements is his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which is seeking rapprochement with Vladimir Putin, believes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted quite calmly to Elon Musk's verbal attacks on Scholz himself and other leading German politicians. This follows from the Chancellor's interview with the German magazine Stern published on Saturday, January 4.

“As Social Democrats, we have been used to the fact since the century before last that there are rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate Social Democratic politics – and do not keep their opinions to themselves,” said Scholz. In his opinion, such statements should be reacted to with a “cool” head.

In recent weeks, Musk has repeatedly made numerous offensive statements towards Scholz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. For example, after the bloody terrorist attack in Magdeburg, he wrote on the social network X, which he owns, that Scholz should “resign immediately” and is an “incompetent idiot”, and called Steinmeier an “anti-democratic tyrant”.

To this, Scholz replied: “The Federal President is not an anti-democratic tyrant, and Germany is a strong and stable democracy, no matter what Musk says. In Germany, the will of the citizens is important, not the fickle statements of a billionaire from the US”.

What is more disturbing about Musk's statements than insults to German politicians?

At the same time, Scholz explained that he finds much more alarming in Musk's statements and position on the political situation in Germany than his verbal attacks: the fact that “Musk is campaigning for a far-right party, such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which advocates rapprochement with Putin's Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations.”

In an article published in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper at the end of December, Musk openly campaigned for the AfD. In his opinion, given Germany's alleged “economic and cultural collapse,” the AfD is “the last spark of hope for this country,” and the portrayal of the party as right-wing extremist is “clearly false.” Musk later promised to conduct an “online interview” with AfD leader Alice Weidel.

Reaction to Musk's article and suspicion of using AI to write it

This article caused a wave of indignation and heated political debate in Germany. In addition, the German publications Tagesspiegel and T-Online reported that there is reason to believe that it could have been generated at least in part by artificial intelligence (AI).

As the Zeit Online publication wrote on January 4, there is still no “unambiguous clear evidence” that Musk used AI to write the material, but the tests conducted by the editorial office itself give reason to assume that AI could have been used. For example, the GPTZero system used by the editorial office claims to have determined the probability of AI use at 93 percent. “We are absolutely certain that this text was generated by artificial intelligence,” is the conclusion of the check. Another system claims, on the other hand, that 79 percent of the text of the article was probably generated by artificial intelligence.