Summary
Elon Musk sparked outrage in Germany by endorsing the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on his platform, X, claiming “only the AfD can save Germany.”
The AfD, which polls second ahead of Germany’s February snap election, has been labeled extremist by German intelligence.
Political leaders accused Musk of election interference, while others criticized his remarks as harmful. Musk later doubled down, calling for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s resignation.
Musk’s comments align with his past support for far-right and anti-immigration figures across Europe and beyond.
An apartheid-loving nazi calls for the nazi party to be the savior of Germany? Never would I have guessed.
The information, I as a not very politically interested German (understatement) have: We are holding re-elections on Feburary 23rd because the current government imploded. Basically, the rich guys’ party doesn’t want to make rich guys pay taxes and being children about it, most other parties seem desperate at this point, else they wouldn’t have challenged that much. They have never cared that much, so I have no idea what changed. The populist nazi party Musk cheers for has a lot traction because people are beyond stupid and self-centered and I fear that they will get a significant amount of votes. Maybe they don’t win outright, but they will realistically take second place. I regard everyone that considers to vote for AfD as a nazi.
I think the real problem is that most parties in Germany that held some power in the last decades did little to nothing to actually improve the economic situation of the “normal” people. For many it stayed the same, for many others it declined significantly starting with Corona and then with the energy crisis that contributed heavily to the inflation.
Paired with us being one of the few nations that raise no taxes at all on wealth but just on income the disparity between the rich and the poor is growing. So people have only the parties that haven’t held power yet to turn to.
I think it’s at least partially some weird form of misplaced hope that something will change for the better in the chaos that would be a AfD government.
But you are correct, supporting the AfD is directly benefiting Nazis. And while I don’t think that all AfD supporters will always be Nazis, they currently are.
For someone not very politically interested you seem to know a good bit. Please vote in February.