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Newly elected vice president JD Vance went to X to call op Elon Musk in The world explaining his support for Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) “interesting.”
Musk shared Martin Varsavski’s post on X, which published what it said was an article Musk had sent to a German newspaper. The AfD is a far-right populist, Eurosceptic party that opposes immigration and calls for mass deportations.
Article entitled Only the AfD can save Germanypoints out Musk’s belief that “As someone who has invested significantly in the German industrial and technological landscape, I believe I have earned the right to speak frankly about her political direction.”
Sharing the article, Vance wrote: “I am not supporting the party in the German elections, because it is not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. But this is an interesting piece.”
“Also interesting; The American media slanders the AfD as Nazi, but the AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis,” he claims.
Nineteen percent of German adults have a positive view of the AfD, he says Pew Research Center.
In his text, Musk highlighted a series of issues that he claimed Germany must address in order to avoid “economic and cultural collapse.”
The paper’s comments editor resigned in protest at Musk’s speech, and the German government said on Monday that Musk was trying to influence the country’s elections scheduled for next month. The Hill noticed.
Germany’s ambassador to the US, Andreas Michaelis, told Bluesky that Vance’s observation was “interesting”.
“The historical context can be tricky – while some of the areas you’re talking about resisted the Nazi party early on, others didn’t, or later became strongholds of the regime. Germany’s history reminds us how important it is to oppose extremism in all its forms,” he said.
Musk initially shared his support for the AfD in December and called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to resign. Ahead of the Feb. 23 election, the AfD remains the second most popular party in Germany, but all of the country’s major parties have ruled out joining a coalition government with the AfD.
Christiane Hoffmann, a spokeswoman for the German government, said during a briefing on Monday that “it is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election with his statement.”
She added that “freedom of expression also includes the greatest nonsense.”