Elon Musk And Alice Weidel: How "Common Sense" Politics Can "Save" Germany
Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,
U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk engaged with Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, during a highly anticipated conversation on X Spaces on Thursday to discuss critical issues facing Germany and advocate why, in both her and Musk’s view, the party is the only chance to “save” the country.
The wide-ranging dialogue allowed Weidel to speak directly to the public regarding the AfD’s policies on mass migration, libertarianism, pro-business initiatives, regulatory reduction, and a balanced energy strategy emphasizing nuclear power, without — as she put it — interference and spin from the mainstream media.
Weidel criticized former Chancellor Angela Merkel, labeling her as Germany’s first “green chancellor” and accusing her energy and immigration policies of “ruining” the nation.
“She enforced without asking the people to open our borders for illegal immigration, she wrecked our backbone in terms of obnoxious energy policy… Germany is the only industrial country that unplugged the nuclear power plants,” Weidel said in a scathing critique of Merkel’s administration.
The AfD co-leader showed similar disdain for the current left-wing administration headed by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), slamming its nuclear phase-out at a time when Europe’s energy market was at its most vulnerable.
Now also as a video: The full conversation with @elonmusk! pic.twitter.com/5BrLGV8viu
— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) January 9, 2025
“They switched off the last nuclear power plant to even more create a shortage of energy, so either you must be very stupid or you just hate your own country,” Weidel stated.
Musk expressed alignment with the AfD’s positions, particularly on energy policy and economic reforms.
“Germany should really keep its nuclear power plants running. I think that’s extremely important,” he said.
Addressing the portrayal of the AfD in mainstream media, Weidel contended that the party is unjustly framed as far-right by left-leaning circles.
She emphasized the AfD’s libertarian-conservative stance, distancing it from extremist ideologies.
In a firm rejection of any notion that the AfD is aligned with far-right ideology amid frequent derogatory comparisons in the mainstream media to Hitler, Weidel insisted her party “stands for the opposite” of what the Nazi Party advocated.
“He was a communist socialist guy, full stop, no more comment on that,” Weidel said of Hitler, before proceeding to comment further by explaining that 1930s Germany was subjected to mass state censorship and nationalization of key infrastructure.
“We are exactly the opposite, the libertarian, conservative party,” she said.
“We are wrongly framed the entire time and we would like to free the people of this state,” Weidel added.
🇩🇪📷Want to know why @elonmusk supports the AfD?
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 9, 2025
Listen yourself to co-leader Alice Weidel as she SLAMS Angela Merkel and the corrupt left-liberal government in a powerful 13-minute speech.
“And then came a CDU chancellor (Angela Merkel). Nine years ago, this chancellor… pic.twitter.com/C3JmYQFDXt
The conversation also touched on the challenges of bureaucracy in Germany, with Musk sharing his experiences dealing with extensive regulatory procedures. He described the approval process for Tesla’s Berlin factory as involving “a truckload of paper,” advocating for streamlined regulations to foster industrial growth.
“Only the AfD can save Germany, end of story,” Musk said unequivocally in a strong endorsement for the party currently polling second ahead of federal elections next month. He characterized the party’s platform as “common sense,” urging voters to support the AfD to prevent further decline in Germany’s economic and cultural landscape.
On immigration, the AfD’s trump card given the perceived failures on the topic by successive SPD and CDU-led administrations, Weidel claimed the German government has raked in record levels of income tax from Germans in order to “throw it out the window” by spending it on assisting migrants.
“So, 57 percent, almost 60 percent of people coming through our open borders throw away their passports,” Weidel explained, referencing Germany’s illegal immigration crisis.
The conversation drifted away from domestic politics to wider issues including Weidel’s unconditional support for the existence of the state of Israel, although she freely admitted she did not have a solution at this time to the problems in the Middle East. Further non-political topics including religion and Musk’s space expeditions were spoken about at length towards the end of the 75-minute conversation with the U.S. billionaire expressing his desire to land a spaceship on Mars in two years’ time.
Musk’s endorsement of the AfD and even the conversation itself have sparked discussions about foreign influence in German politics, with critics, primarily from the legacy parties in the country like the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and also the Greens, expressing concern over his involvement.
“What about George Soros?” Musk quipped, referring to the U.S.-Hungarian billionaire who has donated vast sums to liberal parties across the world under the guise of promoting democracy, seemingly without much contestation from the majority of left-wing politicians who benefitted from his foundation’s generous financial assistance. “And Bill Gates?” added Weidel.
Reports ahead of the conversation suggested that the European Union had tasked 150 officials with listening to the conversation to ascertain whether X as a digital platform required to adhere to the Digital Services Act was complying with EU rules by giving Weidel a platform and an opportunity to introduce herself to the global stage.
Socialist politicians have expressed their contempt for Musk’s recent foray into European politics, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accusing him of pushing “hate,” while Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said it was “worrying that a man with considerable access to social networks and significant economic resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries.”
A clearly panicked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has previously said of Musk, “You have to stay cool. Don’t feed the troll.”