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The world’s richest man, a key adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, is ridiculing his complaints against Germany’s extremist AfD party as Germany prepares for elections.
By Christopher F. Schuetze
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and close adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump surprised Guyy in Gerguyy last week by endorsing his far-right Alternative for Gerguyy party, which is under national intelligence surveillance because it is an extremist.
This week, Musk is even more concerned about the country’s early elections, explaining in an op-ed why he believes the far-right party is the “last spark of hope” for Germany.
“The traditional parties have failed in Germany,” Mr. Musk wrote in comments published online by the daily Welt on Saturday. “Their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest, and the erosion of national identity.”
Mr. Musk’s opinion piece comes as Germany girds itself for an intense winter election after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed in November. On Friday President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany officially announced the disbandment of Parliament and set Feb. 23 as the date for new elections.
While 4 classical parties and 3 extremist parties from the left and right compete for seats in parliament and participation in the government, the polls favor the conservative Christian Democratic Union. However, the AfD, with its anti-immigration platform, is in second place in the polls, with around 20 percent.
Mr. Musk’s commentary was printed in the Sunday edition of the Welt, a conservative daily owned by the Axel Springer media group, which also owns Politico in the United States. Many of the paper’s journalists protested the printing of the commentary, according to reports. Eva Marie Kogel, who had been the paper’s head of opinion, resigned from her post after the printing, she confirmed on X.
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