Bundestag election: Scholz on Musk’s attacks: “Stay cool”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacts calmly to personal attacks by US billionaire Elon Musk against him and other top politicians. “As Social Democrats, we have been used to it since the century before last that there are rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics – and do not keep their opinions behind the scenes,” Scholz told the magazine “Stern”.

Of course, things are a little different today because media companies and platforms now have a global reach. “But it’s nothing new in this matter. You have to stay cool,” said the SPD politician. But he added: “I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk supports a partly right-wing extremist party like the AfD, which preaches rapprochement with Putin’s Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations.”

The tech billionaire promotes the AfD and uses Platform X, which he owns, to insult German politicians. Musk called Scholz a “fool” and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier an “undemocratic tyrant.” Scholz countered: “The Federal President is not an anti-democratic tyrant and Germany is a strong and stable democracy – Musk can say whatever he wants. In Germany, things go according to the will of the citizens, not according to the erratic statements of a billionaire from the world USA.”

Scholz doesn’t want to invite Musk to the Chancellery. “I don’t believe in courting Mr. Musk’s favor. I’m happy to leave that to others.”

Scholz: AfD in Grünheide once against the Tesla factory

Scholz said he himself met Musk once in March 2022 at the opening of the Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin and spoke briefly. At that time, the AfD there was agitating against the location of the plant in Grünheide. A few months later, Musk contacted him again by phone with a personal concern: “It’s no secret that Tesla was against government funding for e-charging stations in Germany,” said the Chancellor.

Klingbeil and Lindner: Musk is not concerned with the well-being of Germany

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil sees the EU’s turn because of Musk and his use of X. “There needs to be supervision and a fight against fake news, including on social media. We’re seeing, especially at said Klingbeil to the “Rheinische Post”. “Musk is about using his communication power to influence opinions and elections and to make money. He doesn’t care about the future of Germany,” emphasized the SPD chairman.

FDP leader Christian Lindner went one step further. “He cannot be concerned about the well-being of Germany,” Lindner told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” as well as the newspapers of the Neue Berliner Editorial Society. The FDP leader added with a view to the AfD: “He may want to weaken Germany in the American interest – by recommending the election of a party that would harm us economically and isolate us politically.”

FDP General Secretary Marco Buschmann called Musk’s election recommendation for the AfD “incomprehensible.” Anyone who, like Musk, essentially calls for strengthening the market economy, free trade and the spirit of innovation cannot rationally call for the AfD, Buschmann told the Editorial Network Germany (RND). But everyone has the right to “make stupid suggestions,” and that also applies to Elon Musk, added Buschmann.