Elon Musk talks to Alice Weidel on X
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and future US presidential adviser, chatted with Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany's AfD, for 75 minutes in a livestream on his platform X. Musk also clearly endorsed the far-right party. Europe's media analyse the conversation – along with Musk's power and motives.
Green light for half-truths
This was a conversation between like-minded people, partly banal and partly untrue, Gazeta Wyborcza summarises:
“The first part, in which Weidel and Musk discussed energy issues, was relatively objective, backed by facts, and at times even boring. ... Musk constantly agreed with Weidel, and she returned the favour with a statement that should also sound familiar in Poland, for it was often made by PiS politicians when they visited TV Trwam and other media outlets sympathetic to them: 'I must say that it's a complete new situation for me that I just can have a normal conversation and I'm not interrupted,' said the AfD leader. From that moment on, Weidel felt so at ease that in her statements facts gave way to half-truths, distortions and outright lies.”
Legally questionable campaign support
The Romanian service of Deutsche Welle looks at the potential legal implications of the talk on X for the AfD:
“The Bundestag is examining the possibility of a violation of the campaign financing rules, with the argument that the talk could potentially influence future donations from party supporters, as Musk has explicitly endorsed the AfD and Weidel. The group Lobby Control, which specialises in monitoring economic pressure on German and European politics, believes that the manipulation of X's algorithms to enhance the visibility of the talk could be interpreted as an illegal campaign donation.”
Far-right politics is good for business
De Standaard columnist Bieke Purnelle suspects that Musk's support for the far right is driven by business interests:
“The most frequently asked question is why Musk so openly and aggressively favours the far right and is using his growing influence to disrupt democratic processes. Perhaps the answer is more prosaic than we think. Perhaps he is simply doing what most benefits him personally: picking the side where he sees the greatest opportunities for making a profit. A greedy multi-billionaire can only win with policies that restrict workers' rights and favour capital. And that just happens to be radical right-wing politics.”
Musk can do whatever he likes
Elon Musk may have more unpleasant surprises for Germany in store, warns hvg:
“Musk was only exercising his right to freedom of expression, say those who believe that we shouldn't make too much of a fuss over his support for the AfD. But there is more to it than that. Because the richest man in the world, special adviser to the US president - who represents the world's largest military and economic power - and owner of social media platform X, can basically do whatever he likes. He can finance campaigns, manipulate news and fake news - or, if he wanted to, expand or close his factory in Germany as he pleases. In the latter case, he would be landing German politicians, who he thinks are stupid anyway, with 12,000 jobless people.”