Summary
Elon Musk expressed support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on X, stating “Only the AfD can save Germany.”
Party leader Alice Weidel welcomed his endorsement, urging followers to review her criticisms of German politics.
The AfD, polling at 19% ahead of February’s federal election, is officially under scrutiny as an extremist group by German authorities.
Musk has previously questioned the party’s “far-right” label. Controversy surrounds the AfD, including links to a meeting discussing deportation of migrants.
I feel like I remember hearing when AfD was getting less than the 5% (or whatever it is) minimum to be granted proportional seats. I knew they had grown in popularity, but they’re at 19% now. 19???!
They should have already banned them.
Meine Oma war 11 am Kriegsende, und hat mir natürlich viel von dir Geschichte persönlich erzählt.
For fucking shame. Honestly.
Makes me quite sad :( as an German Australian. And and as any human who’s been to school in the last 40 years.
When will humanity learn that capitalism is the problem, not the foreigners…?
The problem is, that the AfD slowly drifted from very conservative to far right, and for a pretty long time, they managed to seem sufficiently “bürgerlich” not to be legally extremist. It was perfectly clear that they were nazis, even years ago, but not provable.
Add to that the two unsuccessful attempts to ban the even more right and NPD. They were afraid to fail again.
Regarding the current 19%, Germany’s political, economic, and media system somehow paint itself into a corner. The politicians are largely out of ideas, they’re all fighting about petty conflicts, there’s hardly anything being done. Not that bad laws are enacted, nothing happens. The country runs on autopilot into a very obvious wall, and the politicians fight who can sit in the pilot’s seat. It’s a simulacrum.
The economic system is eroding away. The old German model doesn’t work anymore, and the old conglomerates just switched to subsidies and rent seeking, no investment, no changes. Volkswagen wants to scale back EVs in favor of ICEs.
The media are dominated by public access outlets, who are largely afraid to be critical, because someone could call them biased, and private media spreading hate for clicks.
So, Germany is currently in a pretty bad situation and many many people see that, but don’t see anyone actually doing anything about it. But because they are bombarded with hate, they choose AfD. Absolutely stupid decision, but these people just lost every bit of trust in the system. And honestly, I blame the system.
Thanks for the lengthy reply. Pity about the public broadcasters, it’s the same here in Australia. The ABC’s funding has been cut so much that they’re rarely properly critical of the government.
I, maybe naively, hold on to hope that we’ll be able to pull out of this global slide to the right without the horrors of last century.
Frohe Weihnachten :)
When will humanity learn that capitalism is the problem, not the foreigners…?
Nooo nnnnnoooo you seee it’s the people who (look different/speak different language/family came to the country later than your ancestors did) who are causing all your problems. Don’t look at Mr. Musk who has enough money to buy countries, or Mr. Kühne whose family company gladly helped do the logistics for the holocaust, while he doesn’t even pay taxes in Germany because he doesn’t believe in taxation.
