Germany’s government said on Monday that US billionaire tech giant Elon Musk is trying to influence February elections by praising the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), a move strongly rejected by the major parties.
Musk – a key supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, and his incoming “efficiency czar” – posted on his social media platform X this month that “only the AfD can save Germany”.
He then doubled down on the claim with an opinion piece in a German Sunday newspaper.
On Monday, German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said that “it is true that Elon Musk is trying to influence the parliamentary elections.”
“Elections in Germany are decided by voters at the ballot box,” he said at a regular news conference. He also said that the country’s “elections are a matter for the Germans”.
Europe’s biggest economy will go to the polls on Feb. 23 following the collapse of center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s uncontrolled coalition government last month.
Hoffman said Musk is “free to express his opinion, but no one is required to share it”.
He reminded that various branches of the AfD have been labeled “extremist” by Germany’s domestic security agency.
Scholze’s Social Democrats (SPD) co-leader Lars Klingbiel told Funke Media Group that Musk was trying to do “the same thing as Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
“They both want to influence our elections and support the AfD, which is hostile to democracy,” he said, accusing both Musk and Putin of “wanting to weaken Germany and push it into chaos.”
Klingbeil said more action is needed at the European level to restrict the political power of large social media platforms like X.
Musk has repeatedly used the ax to attack Scholz personally, most recently in the wake of a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg on December 20.
Musk called Scholz an “incompetent idiot” and said he should “immediately resign”.
Musk’s interference in German politics has also been criticized by Scholz’s main rival, Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative opposition CDU/CSU.
Merz described Musk’s AfD support as “interfering and arrogant” and said he could not recall “a comparable case of interference in an election campaign of an ally country in the history of Western democracy”.
The AfD is in second place in the latest surveys with 19 percent, behind the CDU/CSU opposition, which stands at 32 percent.
The SPD is heading for its worst-ever result of 16 percent, while its Green coalition partners are getting 13 percent of the vote.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
