Tesla CEO and X proprietor Elon Musk gestures behind protecting glass throughout a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump, on the web site of the July assassination try in opposition to Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a meagdonor and adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, is now looking for to affect Germany’s election, posting an endorsement on X of the nation’s far-right Different for Germany (AfD) occasion.
In a post Thursday evening, Musk wrote, “Solely the AfD can save Germany.”
Musk, who has over 200 million listed followers on the positioning that he owns, made the remark whereas sharing a publish from far-right influencer, Naomi Seibt, who claimed that Germany’s “presumptive subsequent chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is horrified by the concept Germany ought to observe Elon Musk’s and Javier Milei’s instance,” referring to the president of Argentina.
Seibt has a historical past of selling white nationalist ideology, The Guardian previously reported, and has denied the validity of scientific consensus round local weather change, specifically that it is pushed by fossil gasoline emissions.
In a publish on X, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) referred to as Musk an “out of contact billionaire operating the incoming Trump Administration” who “enthusiastically helps the neo-Nazi occasion in Germany.”
“The AfD’s mission is to rehabilitate the picture of the Nazi motion,” Murphy wrote. He added that one of many occasion’s leaders has a license plate that is “an open tribute to Hitler,” and one other “described Judaism because the ‘internal enemy’ in Germany.”
Musk and Tesla’s investor relations crew did not instantly reply to requests for remark.
On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a center-left Social Democrat, dismissed Musk’s declare that solely the far-right occasion can “save Germany.”
Beneath Scholz’s management, Germany‘s left-wing coalition collapsed in November, and AfD is at the moment polling in second place forward of February elections. All through Germany, the place the AfD has positioned extremely in state elections, the opposite events have typically refused to kind coalitions with it.
In accordance with Pew Analysis, “AfD has campaigned against weapon deliveries to Ukraine and referred to as for an end to sanctions on Russia,” a view shared by Musk.
Far proper events have additionally gained floor within the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and elsewhere. Many cheered Trump’s election, which Musk helped finance by way of $277 million in contributions to the marketing campaign and associated Republican causes.
Tesla’s inventory is up about 75% since Trump’s victory, surpassing its prior all-time excessive from 2021 final week.
AfD has reportedly criticized Tesla and its manufacturing facility outdoors of Berlin. The occasion claimed a lot of Tesla’s hundreds of employees there commute in from Poland or Berlin, limiting the financial advantages to the area people in Brandenburg.
The AfD typically views electrical automobiles as a part of an ideological local weather motion, and never good for Germany’s auto business.
Europe has been a tricky marketplace for Tesla this yr. In accordance with information from the European Vehicle Producers Affiliation, gross sales of Tesla automobiles declined 40.9% in November, exceeding the general 9.5% dip in gross sales of battery electrical automobiles.
Elsewhere in Euopre, Musk endorsed right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and has voiced assist for Nigel Farage within the U.Ok, a populist politician and head of Reform UK. In South America, Musk endorsed and has a friendship with Argentina’s President Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist.
In Magdeburg, Germany, on Friday, a driver veered his automobile into crowds of individuals at a Christmas market, leading to fatalities and dozens of accidents.
In response to a publish on X exhibiting Chancellor Scholz in a press convention after the incident, Musk wrote, “Scholz ought to resign instantly. Incompetent idiot.”
