BERLIN (Reuters) – U.S. billionaire Elon Musk has backed Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a guest opinion piece for Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper, prompting the commentary editor to resign in protest.
In the commentary, published in German, Musk expanded on his previous social media post claiming that “only the AfD can save Germany.” He criticized the portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist, citing the party’s leader Alice Weidel, who has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD as a suspected extremism case since 2021. Shortly after the piece was published online, the editor of the opinion section, Eva Marie Kogel, resigned, citing the need to deal with polarizing positions and classify them journalistically.
The newspaper’s editor-in-chief designate, Jan Philipp Burgard, and publisher Ulf Poschardt, said the discussion about Musk’s piece was “very revealing.” They published a response from Burgard underneath Musk’s commentary, criticizing the AfD’s desire to leave the European Union and seek rapprochement with Russia and China.
Musk’s backing of the AfD comes as Germans are set to vote on February 23 after a coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed. The AfD is running second in opinion polls and might be able to thwart either a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream parties have pledged to shun any support from the AfD at national level.