Elon Musk hosts X talk with German far-right AfD’s Weidel – DW – 01/09/2025
Skip next section Conversation begins on Spaces
01/09/2025January 9, 2025
Conversation begins on Spaces
The discussion between Musk and Weidel started roughly on time just after 7 p.m. German time.
Even its heading on Musk’s X account was rather misleading for those tuning in unfamiliar with German politics.
“Conversation with the leading candidate to run Germany,” the discussion was initially billed as.
Weidel is the AfD’s leading candidate to run Germany. She’s also at the head of the party with a realistic chance of coming second, if a rather distant second, based on current polls.
However her chances of becoming chancellor after the vote on February 23, with roughly 20% public support and nobody willing to be a coalition partner, are virtually nil barring a political earthquake.
https://p.dw.com/p/4ozjq
Skip next section Musk’s Weidel conversation facing scrutiny on election campaign rules
01/09/2025January 9, 2025
Musk’s Weidel conversation facing scrutiny on election campaign rules
Even prior to Thursday evening’s online discussion, the German Bundestag parliament’s administrative arm is eying it as a potential violation of campaign financing rules.
The Bundestagsverwaltung said on Thursday that it would monitor the discussion in case it violated rules on influencing the upcoming election or party campaign donations.
Analysts quoted in Thursday’s papers in Germany expressed skepticism about the potential for rule breaches emerging in these areas. They pointed to factors like the discussion being aired without charge and also to free speech laws that would cover Musk repeating an endorsement of the AfD or Weidel.
However, the Lobby Control group, which campaigns for the reduced influence of lobbyists in German and EU politics, argues that manipulating X’s algorithms to boost the discussion’s prominence and reach could constitute an illegal campaign donation.
Aurel Eschmann from Lobby Control told DW that Musk’s account’s “reach is much higher than for a user with a similar follower count that isn’t the owner of X.”
“And since the service of this boost in reach is supplied to the party AfD for free, this would constitute a party donation,” he argued.
A spokesperson for Weidel referred to the online event as an “unprepared and open discussion,” also saying that the pair had yet to meet.
The AfD faced a large fine for illegal campaign funding a few years ago that dated back to the 2016 state elections in Baden Württemberg in the southwest.
Officials fear Musk will try to tip German election to AfD
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https://p.dw.com/p/4ozG6
Skip next section How popular is the AfD in Germany?
01/09/2025January 9, 2025
How popular is the AfD in Germany?
As of mid-December, the far-right party was polling at nearly 20%, second among the parties, behind the conservative CDU. That’s nearly double its 2021 general election result.
The AfD has poached voters from all the other major parties except the Greens, and has simultaneously succeeded in mobilizing many non-voters.
The party scores best among middle-income to low-income earners — though that is by no means its exclusive voter base, and draws voters from across social classes. It is especially successful in Germany’s east. Its membership, meanwhile, has one significant feature — only 17% are women.
Founded in 2013 as a euroskeptic party, the AfD has since risen to the federal as well as every state parliament in regional elections as well as the European parliament.
It was originally created by a group of neo-liberal academics as a protest against the single European currency. They were angered specifically by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to bail out Greece in 2010 following Europe’s financial crisis.
But following Germany’s move to welcome refugees mainly from war-torn Syria in 2015, the party set an overtly nationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam agenda.
Read more on Germamy’s political parties.
https://p.dw.com/p/4oxMF
Skip next section Who is Alice Weidel?01/09/2025January 9, 2025
Who is Alice Weidel?
Politically, Weidel is a heavyweight in the male-dominated AfDImage: Christoph Soeder/dpa/picture alliance
Alice Weidel belongs to a very small minority. She is one of nine women in the parliamentary group of the AfD — 69 men make up the rest.
She co-chairs both the party itself and its parliamentary group, together with Tino Chrupalla. Weidel also ran on a joint ticket with Chrupalla in the last federal election in 2021. The result back then was disappointing for the AfD: they won 10.3%, down from 12.6% in 2017.
The 45-year-old has a doctorate in economics. In the late 2000s, she worked at the Bank of China and lived in China for six years where she learned to speak Mandarin.
Weidel has previously expressed admiration of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister from 1979 to 1990.
Her private life has been used by Musk to dismiss the far-right label of the AfD, as she lives in a civil partnership with a woman who originally comes from Sri Lanka. Together, they have two adopted children.
That lifestyle is a far cry from the AfD’s ideals. In the party’s manifesto, the party is committed to the model of the traditional family, one in which “mother and father take permanent joint responsibility for their children.”
The AfD’s candidate for chancellor lives in Germany and Switzerland. Read more on her political views.
https://p.dw.com/p/4oxPD
Skip next section Musk ‘on the wrong side of history’ with AfD support, says Manfred Weber
01/09/2025January 9, 2025
Musk ‘on the wrong side of history’ with AfD support, says Manfred Weber
Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP conservative bloc in the European Parliament, has told DW that it is not in Elon Musk’s business interests to support Germany’s far-right AfD.
He also said Germany and Europe should be more self-confident, and not take everything the Tesla and SpaceX founder says “too seriously.”
AfD support puts Musk ‘on the wrong side of history’
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Skip next section Why is Elon Musk backing the far-right AfD in Germany?01/09/2025January 9, 2025
Why is Elon Musk backing the far-right AfD in Germany?
The richest man in the world, first and foremost, appears to have his own economic interests in mind.
In an op-ed published in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Musk praised the AfD for its plans to “reduce government overregulation, lower taxes and deregulate the market.”
A Tesla plant in Brandenburg, outside Berlin, is the US manufacturer’s first electric car factory in Europe and would stand to profit from such changes. Development of the plant had also faced resistance from local AfD politicians in the past, something that might stand to change going forward in the case of publicly friendly ties.
It’s also consistent with Musk’s support of right-wing and far-right politicians in several countries around the world.
In Germany, Musk’s support for the AfD set off a storm of criticism. But what is everyone up in arms about? Read DW’s analysis.
https://p.dw.com/p/4owTn
This article was originally published by a www.dw.com . Read the Original article here. .