Musk is accused of interfering in the German elections in support of the far right

The rise of Alternative for Germany (AfD) is being fueled and supported by influential voices on the international far right. Among them, the billionaire and owner of the social network X, Elon Muskwho was accused by the German government this Monday (30) of interfering in the country’s electoral process.

The accusation came after Musk’s tweets on the social network X in support of the AfD and an opinion article published in the newspaper “Die Welt”.

“Elon Musk is in fact trying to influence the Bundestag elections with his statements,” said Christiane Hoffmann, deputy spokeswoman for the German government.

Hoffmann highlighted that, although Musk is free to express his opinion, this does not mean that his statements are irrelevant to the political context. “Freedom of opinion is a precious asset. And here we are seeing an attempt to exert influence,” he said.

Musk had an article published in the German newspaper this Saturday (28), in which he expressed support for the AfD.

In the text, published in German by the media group’s main newspaper Axel Springer, Musk broke down a post he had made on platform X last week, when he said “that only the AfD can save Germany”.

The newspaper’s Opinion editor, Eva Marie Kogel, submitted her resignation on Friday (27) in protest.

Kogel announced his decision on his X profile: “I always liked heading the opinion department at ‘Welt’ and “WamS”. Today a text by Elon Musk was published in ‘Welt am Sonntag’ [versão dominical do ‘Welt’]. Yesterday I submitted my resignation.”

Germany is experiencing a moment of political uncertainty after Olaf Scholz’s coalition collapsed and new elections were called. The Bundestag approved a motion of censure that dismissed the traffic light coalition (a union between the Social Democrats of the SPD, Scholz, the liberals of the FDP and the Greens).