Bundestag election: Musk justifies the election call for the AfD

The US billionaire Elon Musk has renewed his call for the AfD in the federal election. “The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” writes Musk in a guest article for “Welt am Sonntag” (WamS). While last week he made a brief statement on the online service X, which he owns (“Only the AfD can save Germany”), Musk now gave detailed reasons for his election recommendation. The AfD would represent the right positions on the issues of economic recovery, energy supply and migration control.

Musk comments on Alice Weidel’s partner

He also sees the AfD as committed to “political realism”. Musk, who is known for provocative, high-frequency postings on his platform and who, among other things, called Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) a “fool,” continues to write in the newspaper: “The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly wrong, if you consider that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka. Does that sound like Hitler to you?”

Weidel quoted an excerpt from Musk’s post on but about Germany not losing its identity in the pursuit of globalization.” The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution observes the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case.

Discontent in the editorial team because of Musk’s contribution

In the newspaper, the future editor-in-chief of the “Welt” group, Jan Philipp Burgard, contradicted the billionaire’s statements: “Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong.” Both articles – Musk’s and Burgard’s – were placed right next to each other in the printed newspaper.

The Musk contribution caused anger within the editorial team. The head of the opinion department of “Welt” and “WamS” of the Welt newspaper group posted on Other world journalists also posted their displeasure publicly on X.

According to media reports, the printing of Musk’s guest article sparked a heated controversy within the editorial team before Christmas Eve. The editorial committee had already warned against publication back then, writes the industry service “Medieninsider”, and the “Spiegel” reports on further disputes in the final editorial conference on Friday.

When asked by the German Press Agency about the genesis of the article and how to deal with internal criticism, the media group Axel Springer responded with a joint statement from the current “Welt” group editor-in-chief Ulf Poschardt and his successor Burgard: “The current discussion about Elon Musk’s text is very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.” This includes dealing with polarizing positions and classifying them journalistically. “This will continue to determine the compass of “Die Welt” in the future. We will develop “Die Welt” even more decisively as a forum for such debates.”

Musk has been getting involved for a long time

Musk is considered a close advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump and was commissioned by him to work with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on a newly created committee called DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”) to develop proposals for cutting government spending. The tech billionaire, who as Tesla boss is one of the largest employers in Brandenburg, has also been interfering in British politics for months. He has assured the right-wing populist British party Reform UK of his support.

Before the planned federal election on February 23rd, the AfD is in second place in surveys with around 19 percent, behind the Union with more than 30 percent. All parties represented in the Bundestag rule out cooperation with the far-right party.