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January 9, 2025 - 10:00pm
Today’s X Spaces conversation between the Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel and Elon Musk was not well-received by the legacy media. According to AP, Musk “amplified the German far-Right leader’s views” while the New York Times claimed that the world’s richest man was “trying to break Germany’s quarantine on the far-Right AfD”.
The truth, though, was a little more banal. Over the course of the conversation, Weidel and Musk discussed a number of topics that made the AfD co-leader than more like a politician from the liberal FDP. For example, she argued that Germany needed to return to nuclear power, and those responsible for the energy transition were either “stupid or hate Germany.” Weidel added that there was too much tax and bureaucracy, a sentiment shared by Musk who told of how he had to print out and stamp every page of a 25,000 page document for building a factory in Germany.
Unfortunately, there was no talk about how the party would achieve these goals, what it would do to reverse the consequences of mass migration, and how it would revive the German economy. The larger question, though, is whether Musk’s endorsement of the AfD could boost the party’s standing ahead of this year’s federal elections.
While it certainly is better for the AfD’s electoral prospects to have the world’s richest man on its side than against it, so far his engagement has not moved the needle for the upcoming election. Latest polls have the AfD at 20%, up from 19% since Musk started to sound off on German politics. But this could also be the consequence of the deepening recession, a recent terrorist attack, and the success of the Austrian Freedom Party, a role model for the AfD, which is poised to enter the next Austrian coalition government. In spite of Musk’s support, the AfD still lags 10 points behind the centre-right CDU party.
One reason why Musk may struggle to make an impact is language — it is much harder for the Tesla CEO to insert himself into the national conversation (as he has done in the UK) because he does not speak German. Another is knowledge. As the conversation with Weidel made clear, Musk’s understanding of German politics does not really extend beyond his own business experience in the country and what he reads on X.
Despite his limited impact, Musk’s involvement has infuriated parts of the German establishment who, five years ago, might have once sought his support. This hysteria was most pronounced in the mainstream media and the Green Party, with Robert Habeck warning the billionaire to “keep his hands of our democracy”. But in truth, it is much harder to influence German politics from the outside. According to a new election law from 2024, party donations originating from non-EU countries are illegal, so there is almost no way for Musk to financially support the AfD in the same way he once planned to do in the UK with the Reform party.
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SubscribeIsn’t Robert Habeck the politician who commissioned a German law firm to use AI to scour social media to find posts critical of him, and indict the posters for defamation?
Robert Habeck who gained his Doctorate of Philosophy with a thesis on Nature in Literature so a man eminently suited to pontificate on nuclear energy (that he is against). One of the wreckers of German industry. I look forward to receiving my writ. Did he win any money as a result of his legal trolling?
Hold on a moment. This guy is reporting on an X message Musk issued earlier today (January 9th) and then commenting that this hadn’t shown any impact in opinion polling yet ! X may be near instant, but opinion polling certainly is not.
Another fallacious assumption made is that Musk needs to spend money to exert influence.
My own suspicion is that Musk has no intention of spending any money supporting political campaigns in either the UK or Germany. And he doesn’t need to. I suspect he just signals it in order to wind up people he disagrees with (in a very similar manner to some of Trump’s utterances). As they say in chess, the threat is often more dangerous than the execution [of it].
I’m inclined to agree with you re political donation to Reform – always thought that was a bit of trolling on Musk and Farage’s part. The recent spat between them couldn’t have worked out better for Farage if it had been choreographed in advance.
As you say, Musk’s interventions do seem to benefit those he supports.
Yes I agree. Musk was never going to donate $100M to Reform, or indeed any money at all.
The whole donation and falling out with Farage was a great “double act” between the two of them which the MSM fell for.
Of course the resultant publicity was real value for Reform.
Alice Weidel’s interview offered a grass roots view into Germany’s struggle that parallels struggles in many nations today (e.g. Italy, England, U.S). These insights assist in a Western transformation that will likely seem worthy of favorable treatment by historians for decades to come. The solutions she offered were plain. Uncontrolled immigration — exert control. Distorted electric power economics — restart nuclear power plants. Excessive business startup regulation — deregulate permits. English speaking listeners won’t value or even understand insights into the weeds that must be pulled in Germany. It was enough to hear her proclaim the necessity of selecting and delegating to good people. This was not national campaigning to future constituents, but foreign relations for future investors.
Elon Musk’s halting, start/stop speaking style aside, I am one who appreciates that he earned the hard way his wealth and fame — the fat of the land — and still offers reinvestment in support of this land’s fertility. What has Zuck reinvested from his wealth arising from simple college web page programming? At least Bezos scrambled to move physical product for the first years, but how much has he returned to the land in the past 15 years?!
I wasn’t interested in this Musk-Weidel talk until the EU threats started coming (“We’ve got 150 brueaucrats watching you and checking your every word!!!”) and then I tuned in just thumb my nose at them because, quite frankly, I’ll listen to what I want and make my mind up about it myself.
And it was really boring. After 15 minutes I dropped it and watched Bari Weiss interview Julie Bindel and Ayaan Ali Hirsi about the grooming gangs instead.
The main reason the AfD is getting stronger is because the mainstream parties are failing and won’t even talk about some of the most glaring mistakes. Elon Musk is a bit of a sideshow to be honest.
We do need a clean out of centrist political leadership so new mantles can be adopted the the AFD deflated. This applies across the democratic world.
Nobody is going to change their political opinions based on a few social media posts by a ketamine addled Musk, especially outside the States. He’s entertaining but that’s about as far as it goes for 99% of people