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German politicians have criticised media conglomerate Axel Springer for publishing an opinion article by Elon Musk in praise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), as anger grows over the tech billionaire’s increasing advocacy of right-populist parties in Europe.
Matthias Miersch, general secretary of Germany’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD), said it was “shameful and dangerous” that Axel Springer had offered Musk a platform by publishing his article in one of its newspapers, Welt am Sonntag.
“It’s unacceptable that foreign billionaires try to influence our political landscape and support parties that undermine our democratic values,” he told the Handelsblatt newspaper.
Musk’s pro-AfD piece comes less than two months ahead of snap elections in Germany triggered by the collapse of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition. Polls have the AfD in second place behind the centre-right Christian Democrats, with Scholz’s SPD trailing in third place.
Andreas Audretsch, a senior Green MP who is leading the party’s election campaign, took to X to criticise the article.
“It damages our democracy when Herr Musk, the Chinese state or Moscow’s troll factories subvert our democratic discourse,” he said. “That’s why the right-wing extremists in the AfD like all that so much.”
Welt comment editor Eva Marie Kogel announced over the weekend that she was resigning, in a sign of the anger the decision to publish the Musk piece generated in the paper’s newsroom.
“Journalism lives off independence and credibility, Die Welt lives off its reputation,” said Mika Beuster, head of the DJV, the German journalists’ association. “All of that is being thrown, with a great clatter, in the dustbin.”
Musk, a close adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump and a friend of Axel Springer chief executive Mathias Döpfner, used the op-ed article to praise the AfD, large parts of which have been designated extremist by German domestic intelligence and placed under surveillance. The party has also advocated the mass deportation of foreigners.
Musk described Germany as being on the brink of economic and cultural collapse and said the AfD was the “last spark of hope” for the country, praising its policies of market deregulation, tax cuts and cutting red tape, as well as its opposition to immigration.
He also dismissed the idea that the AfD was “right-wing extremist”, noting that its co-leader, Alice Weidel, is in a same-sex relationship with a woman from Sri Lanka. “Does that sound to you like Hitler? Please!” he wrote.
Musk is heavily invested in Germany, where Tesla has built its first European gigafactory. But his plans to expand the plant, in Brandenburg, ran up against stiff local resistance this year, including from AfD politicians in the state.
The publication of the article came just over a week after Musk retweeted a video by a German rightwing activist, adding: “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Weidel responded: “Yes! You’re absolutely right!”
The AfD is the latest European hard-right organisation to win Musk’s support.
Nigel Farage recently suggested that Musk could donate to Reform UK, telling the BBC that his party was in “ongoing negotiations” with the tech mogul after the pair met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
He also waded into the spat between Farage and Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch, putting a fact-check alert on Badenoch’s tweets in which she claimed that Reform UK had faked its membership numbers.
Earlier this year, Musk praised Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, describing her as “someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside” and “authentic, honest and thoughtful”. She reciprocated by praising his “precious genius”.
Insiders at Axel Springer, which also owns Politico, rejected the criticism that, by publishing the article, they were giving a platform to Musk and the far right.
“He’s the owner of Twitter and with one tweet he can reach 200mn people,” said one. “Who is Welt to give him a platform? He is a platform. Better to publish this on our platform where we can guard it and flank it with our own opinion.”
