Election campaign: Klingbeil: “Musk is trying to do nothing other than Vladimir Putin”

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil criticizes tech billionaire Elon Musk’s interference in the federal election campaign. “Elon Musk is trying nothing different than Vladimir Putin,” Klingbeil told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Both want to influence our elections and specifically support the AfD’s enemies of democracy. They want Germany to be weakened and plunge into chaos.” Democracy in Germany is “massively threatened from outside.”

Last week, Musk made a statement on the online platform X, which he owns (“Only the AfD can save Germany”). He renewed his election call for the AfD in the federal election in a guest article for “Welt am Sonntag” and received criticism from the media industry and politics. “The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” wrote Musk.

Klingbeil wants to tame online platforms

“We have to be much more offensive and effectively limit the power of the large Internet platforms like Musk’s short message service X,” said Klingbeil. “Here a tech billionaire is trying to use his influence to influence the course of world politics.” Taking action against this is primarily the task of the EU Commission. “We need legal instruments against fake news, also to break the power of individual people. We in Europe have to get off our backs if we want to avert a major threat to democracy.”

Musk is considered a close advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump and was commissioned by him to work with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in a newly created committee called DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”) to develop proposals for radically cutting government spending.