They laughed, chatted like friends and agreed on just about everything.
If there was any doubt that Elon Musk’s heart lies on the far right of German politics, that disappeared during this conversation.
Musk was unequivocal in his support. “I am strongly recommending that the people of Germany vote for AfD,” he said. “This is simply the sensible move. Nothing outrageous is being proposed – just common sense.”
He added: “Only the AfD can save Germany – I want to be clear about that – only the AfD can save Germany.”
He predicted president-elect Donald Trump would solve the war in Ukraine “very quickly” because “hundreds of thousands of people” have died – and decried the European Union for monitoring the X broadcast of his conversation with AfD’s co-leader Alice Weidel.
“If people are fed propaganda, you don’t have a proper democracy – you need free speech to make an informed vote,” he said. “Whoever wants to shut down freedom of speech, they are the bad guys.”
Alternative for Germany’s co-leader Alice Weidel in her office before the online talk. Pic: Reuters
The EU, for what it’s worth, thinks they are the good guys who are trying to prevent the spread of propaganda.
Musk, and his company X, are already subject to legal proceedings alleging his social media site has abused its dominant position.
They talked about whether the AfD had been demonised by its critics and both went to pains to claim that the expression “far right” was a concoction of the mainstream media.
Musk awkwardly mentioned something about memories of Nazism, before trailing off, but Weidel jumped in, saying that she wanted to “shed some light”.
Her argument was, remarkably, that Adolf Hitler was not actually a far right dictator after all but instead “a socialist, communist guy” who had exploited “the envy against Jewish people”.
“We are a libertarian, conservative party, but we are wrongly framed all the time,” Weidel said.
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She blamed Angela Merkel for wasteful green legislation and a flawed energy policy, for ushering in a period of high migration that she linked to criminality on the streets. “The crime rate is rocketing,” she said.
She also claimed Germany had a “wokeish, liberal education system and all children learn is gender studies”. Ah, replied Musk, “so the woke mind virus has infected Germany quite badly”.
Read more:
Why Musk is interested in UK politics
Could Elon be Trump’s middleman with China?
The conversation meandered from Ukraine to Israel, from migration to Mars, and to a slightly unclear discussion about whether God existed.
The promise to have questions from the audience, which was at one point well above 200,000, was ignored.
“It was wonderful listening to you,” said Weidel at the end. Musk chuckled, thanked her, and hung up.
