German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed concern over Elon Musk's support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, weeks before the nation's snap election next month.
Scholz, in an interview with Stern magazine published on Saturday, said while he was not fazed by the US tech billionaire's attacks on him and other German politicians, Musk's endorsement of the far-right party was much more worrying.
"Far more concerning than such insults is the fact that Musk supports a partly far-right party like the AfD, which advocates rapprochement with Putin's Russia and seeks to weaken trans-Atlantic relations," the chancellor told the German magazine.
Musk to hold live talk with AfD's Alice Weidel on X
Musk endorsed the AfD in a lengthy opinion piece published recently in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency is monitoring the national AfD party as a suspected right-wing extremist organization. Some state-level branches of the AfD have already received that designation.
The party has made tremendous gains in eastern Germany in recent regional votes and has nearly doubled its popularity measured in opinion polls to around 20%, in the run-up to the snap election on February 23.
Musk is expected to hold a live talk with AfD leader Alice Weidel on X Spaces on January 9.
Scholz on Musk's attacks: 'Stay cool'
Musk, a top adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, has been commenting on German politics on his social media platform X for days now.
He has called Scholz a "fool" and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier an "undemocratic tyrant."
Scholz said insults from rich media tycoons were par for the course.
"As Social Democrats, we have been accustomed since the last century to wealthy media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics — and are not shy about expressing their opinions," Scholz told Stern, in reference to his center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
While their voices have a larger reach as media evolves, the situation is not new, the chancellor said. "One must remain cool," he said as several German politicians expressed irritation over the ordeal.
Musk, in 2022, had made a personal request to Scholz over a phone call regarding the federal government's plans to subsidize electric charging stations across the country. Tesla, owned by Musk, operates its own system of charging stations in Germany.
"It is no secret that Tesla was against the government funding for electric charging stations in Germany," the chancellor said, suggesting Musk's comments stem from business dissatisfaction.
Source: DW
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