I speak German. I sometimes listen to Scholz and Merz (see below). They are really boring.
"In December, American billionaire and Trump confidant Elon Musk posted a six-word sentence on his social-media platform, X, that jolted Germany's political landscape. "Only the AfD can save Germany," he wrote, embracing the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party, which calls for expelling illegal migrants, leaving the European Union and getting closer to Russia.
Musk endorsed the party -- which campaigned against his factory in Germany and has senior members who are vehemently anti-American -- after a conversation at Mar-a-Lago with President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others. During the meeting, Trump, Vance and Musk bashed the leaders of Germany's more mainstream parties, said two people familiar with the conversation.
The episode shows how offhand comments by Trump and members of his inner circle are ricocheting around the world, amplified by Musk's control of a social-media platform and his own enormous following. Musk, who has sought to use X to shake up the European political establishment, had been souring on Germany and its leaders for some time, according to Musk's public statements and some of those who spoke with him. But his public effort to boost the AfD began hours after the Mar-a-Lago meeting.
During the gathering, Trump told his guests he recently took a call from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and said he found him boring, according to two people familiar with the conversation. One of Trump's confidants said Scholz had endorsed Kamala Harris in the election, and that his conservative rival and Germany's likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, had criticized Trump, they said. Scholz and Merz wouldn't be invited to the inauguration, Trump said.
Hours later, Musk posted his message supporting the AfD on X. He followed up with an opinion article backing the AfD in a German newspaper and an interview with the party's leader on X, during which he said the party's platform is "just common sense."
Neither Musk nor the White House responded to requests for comment.
Musk's critical view of Germany's leadership had been forming long before the Mar-a-Lago meeting. Musk, whose carmaker Tesla has one of its largest factories in Germany, said in the interview with the AfD leader his personal experiences dealing with government regulation in the country and his observations about its political culture shaped his views. He also was speaking with political activists who support the AfD and entrepreneurs who were frustrated with liberal German policies and what they see as burdensome regulation.
The AfD's popularity has risen in Germany since the party's creation 12 years ago. In September, it scored its first victory in a state election, and polls show it has the second-largest share of support from voters nationally, trailing the conservative bloc. But the party is still seen as a political pariah by many mainstream German leaders, who have sought to keep it out of power. Germany's domestic-intelligence agency classifies some of the party's regional chapters as far-right extremist organizations. Some senior figures are staunchly pro-Russian and anti-American.
Bjorn Hocke, one of AfD's most popular figures who led the party to victory in the state elections in Thuringia last year, told The Wall Street Journal in 2017 that presenting Adolf Hitler as absolutely evil is a "big problem."
Musk began reaching out to others on X to discuss the AfD and Germany. In June 2024, he connected with Naomi Seibt, a social-media activist who promotes the party to her nearly 400,000 followers on X. The 24-year-old took to social media, initially to campaign against regulations aimed at slowing climate change and Covid vaccination mandates. She now writes about German politics.
Seibt said Musk asked her about the AfD and German politics in general, and wanted to know why the party is considered extremist. He told her that he thought freedom of expression was coming under more pressure in Germany and the EU, she said. "I explained that the Nazi stigma is wrong: The AfD has nothing to do with the national socialists and Adolf Hitler, who was an imperialist oppressor wanting to conquer other nations," Seibt said. "I told him 'AfD is more like America First,' like the Trump movement."
Musk also spoke with Martin Varsavsky, a Madrid-based tech investor who said he met him at the home of Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, nearly two decades ago. Varsavsky founded Inception Fertility, one of the largest fertility clinics networks in the U.S. He told Musk about how he tried to extend his empire in Germany, but his venture proved untenable because of fertility clinic regulations.
Varsavsky said Musk became convinced that Germany is facing its demise because of low birthrates, mass immigration, overregulation and fragmented mainstream politics. Musk was astounded that Germany pays welfare to illegal immigrants from the moment they arrive, which "almost filters for lazy people," Varsavsky said.
"Elon doesn't see the world in terms of left or right, he sees it in terms of hardworking people and lazy people," Varsavsky said. "When it comes to migration, he only favors hardworking people."
Musk shared his bad experiences with German bureaucracy. Varsavsky told Musk that the German system needed disruption of the kind Trump was attempting in the U.S., and said the AfD could be the party to provide it.
Varsavsky, who sits on the supervisory board of Axel Springer, Germany's largest news publisher, said he proposed that Musk elaborate on his endorsement of the AfD in an opinion piece for one of the company's newspapers. Musk penned an article that was published in Germany's Die Welt newspaper.
Germany's future is "teetering on the edge of economic and cultural collapse," because of bad policies, Musk wrote. "A nation must maintain its core values and cultural heritage to remain strong and united." He defended the AfD.
Many politicians criticized the article as interference in a German election.
After the article published, Seibt said she proposed that Musk interview AfD leader Weidel on X. On Jan. 9, he hosted a rambling live interview with her, discussing topics ranging from German red tape (Musk complained he had to have a truckload of paperwork stamped for his Tesla factory), to solar energy (both decried Germany's carbon footprint) and Hitler (he was a socialist, Weidel said).
Days after the interview, polls registered a boost for the AfD's approval rates.
"Musk is helping make the party palatable to a broad electorate," said Prof. Manfred Gullner, head of the Forsa polling institute.” [1]
1. Musk Targets German Mainstream Parties, Embracing Far Right. Pancevski, Bojan. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 25 Jan 2025: A1.
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