BERLIN — Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused an uproar after endorsing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the western European country, prompting the paper’s opinion editor to resign in protest.
Germany must vote advanced elections good February 23 After the three-party government coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz it fell last month in the discussion of how to revive the stagnant economy of the country.
Musk’s Welt am Sonntag — a sister publication of Axel Springer Group-owned POLITICO — featured an opinion piece published in German over the weekend. for the second time this month He supported the Alternative for Germany or AfD.
“The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in the translated commentary.
Next, the far-right party “can lead the country to a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality.”
The CEO of Tesla Motors also wrote his Investment in Germany it gave him the right to comment on the state of the country.
The AfD is asking strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidelhe has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor, because the other parties refuse to work with the far-right party.
An ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, the tech billionaire questioned the party’s public image in his op-ed.
“The representation of the far-right AfD is clearly false, given that party leader Alice Weidel has a Sri Lankan same-sex partner! Does he look like Hitler to you? Please!”
Musk’s comments have sparked a debate in German media over the limits of free speech, with the newspaper’s opinion editor announcing his resignation on Musk’s social media platform, X.
“I have always enjoyed running the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. Yesterday I submitted my resignation after going to print,” wrote Eva Marie Kogel.
Musk’s op-ed was accompanied by a critical article by Jan Philipp Burgard, the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group.
“Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic vision, that only the AfD can save Germany, is completely wrong,” Burgard wrote.
In response to a request for comment from the German Press Agency, dpa, the Welt group’s current editor-in-chief, Ulf Poschardt, and Burgard — who will take over on January 1 — said in a joint statement that the discussion on Musk’s piece was “very insightful. A statement about democracy and journalism. they grow in freedom.”
“This will continue to determine the compass of the “world” in the future. “We will develop Die Welt even more decisively as a forum for such discussions,” they wrote to dpa.
