Elon Musk is not just entering German politics. He is trying to break the political barrier that has kept the most prominent party in the country from leaving the government as it has gained power from the voters.
Mr. Musk will be conducting a live interview on Thursday with Alice Weidel, the candidate for the chancellor of the party, Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, in the country’s emergency elections scheduled for February 23. This event, on X, the social network managed by Mr. Musk, raised threats and threats of legal consequences within the German political class.
Which is, in large part, because Mr. Musk gives the AfD a level of publicity and legitimacy it has long been denied in German public life.
The AfD has surged to second place in Germany’s national election, with the support of nearly a fifth of voters. It has gained support through an unrelenting anti-establishment campaign, targeting the millions of immigrants and refugees who have entered the country over the past decade from the Middle East and Ukraine.
Groups with similar immigration messages elsewhere in Europe, such as the Brothers of Italy and Austria’s Freedom Party, have gained organizational strength. But in Germany, still haunted by its Nazi history, no other party will cooperate with the AfD. Candidates complain that they get less airtime than other candidates on political talk shows.
At the same time, the AfD has made language and actions that German leaders see as extreme. The group has been forced to expel members for using racist and derogatory language. One of its leaders has been repeatedly punished by German courts for repeating banned Nazi slogans.
The group is being monitored by the domestic intelligence agency. Its three state chapters and all of its youth wing are classified as right-extremist, a designation given by the intelligence community after extensive investigation. More than 100 employees working for AfD members of Parliament have also been confirmed to be extremists, according to an investigation by the public broadcaster.
In a 2016 speech, when the AfD gained momentum before the federal election, former Chancellor Angela Merkel called on all German parties to unite against the AfD. He said it was not just a problem for his conservative party but “a challenge for all of us in this house.”
The anti-AfD coalition has not been broken since then. Not after the party went up in the polls and won a major provincial election victory last year, and not after it tried to put a more moderate face forward as its chancellor candidate: Ms. Weidel, a former investment banker who lives with the same Sri Lankan -sex partner and their children in Switzerland.
Enter Mr. Musk, who controls a powerful media platform filled with right-wing influencers. He has become a confidante of President-elect Donald J. Trump and in online posts has begun promoting candidates and parties across Europe.
In December, Mr. Musk also posted a video from Naomi Seibt, a 24-year-old German social media star who has gained many followers on X and YouTube, for her criticism of climate scientists and efforts to combat global warming. He is also close to the AfD, and appears to have helped convert Mr. Musk to support the team.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” wrote Mr. Musk, in his post, included one of his videos.
Ms. Weidel welcomed the support. “You’re right, @elonmusk!” he wrote back.
Mr. Musk has written his opinion in the German newspaper Die Welt explaining his support for the group, which he called the “last glimmer of hope” for Germany. In it, he cast the AfD not as extremist, but as a rational alternative to the calculated political establishment.
“The portrayal of the AfD as a far-right party is clearly wrong given that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on!” he wrote.
On Thursday evening in Germany, Mr. Musk will move on, playing the role of Ms. Weidel in the X “Spaces” interview, similar to the one he held with Mr. Trump last summer.
Mr. Musk, along with many of his X users, favors far-right European political parties such as the AfD. But in many ways the party’s positions differ from Mr. Musk’s personal and business life — and his role as an adviser to Mr.
The AfD is famous for fighting for the construction of a factory in Germany for Tesla, the electric car company owned by Mr. Musk. In an interview with American Conservative this week, Ms. Weidel praised Mr. Trump, but suggested that Germans were “slaves” to the United States, including helping America in wars 30 years ago.
“We Germans have been in this situation for a long time, certainly for the benefit of the US,” he said.
The European Commission said it will investigate the interference of Mr. Musk in European politics because of his enormous power with his X identity and his close relationship, however tenuous, to the incoming American president.
Europe’s centre-left political parties – Germany’s Social Democrats among them – jointly issued a statement urging Brussels to use “all legal means available” to protect democracy from disinformation and foreign interference in social media.
Gérard Araud, the former French ambassador in Washington, has doubts about Europe’s ability to maintain unity in the fight against Mr. Musk is the leader of the present.
“The people of Europe, whose relationship with the United States is civilized and present, is crippled by the growing rhetoric of Trump and Musk,” wrote Mr. Araud in X. “They hope these are just words.”
German leaders also criticized Mr. Musk also tried to ignore him. In an interview this week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed the billionaire’s attempts to woo German voters. “I don’t believe in loving Mr. Musk,” he said. Speaking on social media, he added in English, his rule is, “Don’t feed pedestrians.”
German voters also seem unmoved, at least for now. Three-quarters of respondents to the German broadcaster’s poll said it was inappropriate for Mr. Musk commented on German politics.
But the same study revealed that most of the respondents that Mr. Musk will support the AfD in the elections.
Steven Erlanger again Christopher F. Schuetze reporting contributed.
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