Tech mogul Elon Musk hosted a live-streamed conversation with Alice Weidel, the co-leader and chancellor candidate of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, on his X platform on Thursday, showcasing the populist, anti-mass migration party’s message to a vast audience just before crucial national elections. This event, which attracted around 200,000 live viewers, underscores Musk’s commitment to using his platform to champion populist parties, emphatically endorsing the AfD by saying it is the only party that can “save Germany.”
Musk and Weidel aligned on several key issues: they both criticized Germany’s high taxation, excessive immigration, and the misguided decision to phase out nuclear energy, especially in light of the war in Ukraine cutting off Germany’s supply of Russian gas. Musk, partly of German descent, has significant business interests in Germany and agreed with Weidel that the country’s bureaucracy and regulations stifle business.
The AfD is being monitored by Germany’s domestic intelligence for alleged extremism, and the country’s left and notionally center-right parties are combining against it. Weidel, who used Musk’s platform to stress that the AfD is a libertarian and conservative party, views this surveillance as an unjust political smear campaign aimed at suppressing the AfD’s growing popularity.
Despite the accusations of extremism, Weidel told Musk the AfD is actually the “only protector of the Jewish people” in Germany, with the Islamic immigration enabled by the other parties leaving German Jews increasingly under threat. Additionally, she praised Musk’s commitment to free speech, noting that Adolf Hitler curtailed such freedoms soon after gaining power. She and Musk also negatively emphasized the socialist policies of Hitler’s Nazi party, formally the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
Musk and Weidel alluded to efforts by the European Union (EU) to enforce censorship on X under its Digital Services Act (DSA). The European Commission is also probing whether X policies on, for instance, blue ‘verified’ checkmarks, alleging they may not align with European transparency and accountability standards.
The AfD is polling in second place ahead of federal elections set for February 23, 2025, behind only the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), formerly led by Angela Merkel.
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