Anger in Germany at Musk attempt to ‘influence’ election

BERLIN (AFP) — Germany's government said Monday U.S. billionaire tech baron Elon Musk is trying to sway February elections by praising the far-right Alternative for Germany, known by its German initials AfD, a move strongly rejected by major parties.

Musk — a key supporter of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, and his incoming "efficiency czar" — posted on his social media platform X this month that "only the AfD can save Germany."

He then doubled down on the claim with an opinion piece in a German Sunday newspaper.

On Monday, German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said that "it is a fact that Elon Musk is trying to exert influence on the parliamentary election."

"In Germany, elections are decided by voters at the ballot box," she told a regular news conference, adding that the country's "elections are a matter for Germans."

Europe' biggest economy will head to the polls on Feb. 23 after the collapse of center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unruly coalition government last month.

Hoffmann said that Musk "is free to express his opinion, but one doesn't have to share it."

She recalled that various branches of the AfD have been labelled "extremist" by Germany's domestic security agency.

Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of Scholz's Social Democrats, told the Funke media group that Musk "is trying the same thing as Vladimir Putin," the Russian president.

"They both want to influence our elections and support the AfD, which is hostile to democracy," he said, accusing both Musk and Putin of "wanting Germany to be weakened and pushed into chaos."

Klingbeil said more action was needed on the European level to restrict the political power of big social media platforms such as X.

Musk has repeatedly used X to attack Scholz personally, most recently in the wake of a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg on Dec. 20.

Musk called Scholz an "incompetent fool" and said he "should resign immediately."

Musk's interventions in German politics have also been criticized by Scholz's main rival, the leader of the conservative opposition CDU/CSU, Friedrich Merz.

Merz labelled Musk's AfD endorsement as "interfering and presumptuous" and said he could not remember "a comparable case of meddling in the election campaign of an allied country in the history of Western democracy."

The AfD is in second place in the latest polls at 19%, behind the CDU/CSU opposition, which is at 32%.

The Social Democrats are headed for a worst-ever result at 16% while its Green coalition partners are polling at 13%.

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By Agence France-Presse