German leader more worried about Musk’s backing of far-right party than insults
4 January 2025, 13:14
The Tesla chief had branded Chancellor Olaf Scholz a ‘fool’ after the collapse of his coalition government.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he is staying “cool” in the face of critical personal comments made by Elon Musk, but finds it worrying that the US billionaire became involved in Germany’s general election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Mr Scholz was reacting after Mr Musk, a close aide to US President-elect Donald Trump, called the Chancellor a “fool” after his coalition government collapsed in November. The Tesla chief later backed the AfD in an opinion piece he wrote for a major newspaper in Germany.
The Chancellor, head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), told German magazine Stern on Saturday there is “nothing new” in criticism by “rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not hold back with their opinions”.
“You have to stay cool,” Mr Scholz told Stern.
“I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk is supporting a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing extremist, which preaches rapprochement with Putin’s Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations,” Mr Scholz added.
The AfD is monitored by Germany’s domestic intelligence service on suspicion of right-wing extremism and has already been recognised as these terms in some individual German states.
Germany will hold an early parliamentary election on February 23 after Mr Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed in November in a dispute over how to revitalise the country’s stagnant economy.
Mr Musk recently caused uproar after backing the AfD in an opinion piece for the Welt am Sonntag, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinions editor, Eva Marie Kogel, in protest.
“The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Mr Musk wrote in his translated commentary.
The Tesla Motors chief executive also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country’s condition.
The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming Chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party.
