A senior German politician has dismissed Elon Musk’s public support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as unprecedented interference, labeling it “intrusive and cosmetic”.
Friedrich Merz, the center-right candidate for chancellor in Germany’s Feb. 23 legislative election, attacked the Tesla CEO on Sunday, a day after Musk described the populist party as “the last spark of hope for this country.” Used an op-ed to. ,
In the article published in German, Musk also praised the AfD’s approach to regulation, taxes and market regulation.
This comment was heavily criticized and a senior editor criticized it sunday worldThe newspaper that published Musk’s comments resigned in protest.
The AfD is currently in second place behind Merz’s conservative coalition – the same group led by Angela Merkel until 2021.
What did Marz say?
“I cannot recall in the history of Western democracies any comparable case of interference in an electoral campaign of a friendly country,” said Merz, head of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Funke Media Group.
Merz said: “For a brief moment, imagine the – reasonable – reaction of Americans to a comparable article by a prominent German businessman. new York Times “Endorsing an outsider in the US presidential election campaign.”
He said Tesla’s first gigafactory in Europe – to be built east of Berlin – would not have been approved if the far-right party had been in power, “because it was the AfD that offered the most fierce resistance to the plan.”
Musk has insisted that he has a legitimate interest in German politics because of investments made by the electric car maker.
German democracy ‘cannot be bought’
Saskia Esken, co-leader of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), also called for interference in the German election by the world’s richest man.
“In Elon Musk’s world, democracy and workers’ rights are obstacles to greater profits,” Askren told Reuters news agency. “We say very clearly: Our democracy is worth defending and cannot be bought.”
Another SPD lawmaker, Matthias Miers, told Handelsblatt The Business Daily said it was “shameful and dangerous” that Springer Publishing House – which owns sunday world – Musk was “given an official platform to promote the AfD.”
German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wrote on Saturday on X: “The fact that political power is now easier to buy will do great harm to democracy. If newspapers get involved in this, they are digging their own graves.”
mm/dj (dpa, epd, reuters)
