Elon Musk departs the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill the place President-elect Donald Trump spoke to House Republicans on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura | Getty Images
U.S. billionaire Elon Musk backed Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a visitor opinion piece for Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper revealed on-line on Saturday that prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest.
In the commentary, revealed in German by the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, Musk expanded on his put up on social media platform X final week claiming that “solely the AfD can save Germany.”
“The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, contemplating that Alice Weidel, the get together’s chief, has a same-sex accomplice from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!” Musk mentioned within the piece.
Germany’s home intelligence company has categorized the AfD on the nationwide degree as a suspected extremism case since 2021.
Shortly after the piece was revealed on-line, the editor of the opinion part, Eva Marie Kogel, wrote on X that she had submitted her resignation, with a hyperlink to the commentary.
“Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression. This consists of coping with polarising positions and classifying them journalistically,” the newspaper’s editor-in-chief designate Jan Philipp Burgard and Ulf Poschardt, who takes over as writer on Jan. 1, informed Reuters.
Alexander Gauland of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) speaks throughout his election speech as co-chairman through the AfD federal congress on the Hannover Congress Centrum (HCC) on December 2, 2017 in Hanover, Germany.
Alexander Koerner | Getty Images
They mentioned dialogue about Musk’s piece, which had round 340 feedback a number of hours after it was revealed, was “very revealing.”
Underneath Musk’s commentary, the newspaper revealed a response by Burgard.
“Musk’s analysis is right, however his therapeutic method, that solely the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false,” he wrote, referencing the AfD’s want to go away the European Union and search rapprochement with Russia in addition to appease China.
The AfD backing from Musk, who additionally defended his proper to weigh in on German politics on account of his “vital investments,” comes as Germans are set to vote on Feb. 23 after a coalition authorities led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed.
The AfD is operating second in opinion polls and may have the ability to thwart both a centre-right or centre-left majority, however Germany’s mainstream, extra centrist events have pledged to shun any help from the AfD at nationwide degree.
