BERLIN (Reuters) – U.S. billionaire Elon Musk backed Germany’s Various for Germany (AfD) in a visitor opinion piece for Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper revealed on-line on Saturday that prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest.
Within the commentary, revealed in German by the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, Musk expanded on his publish on social media platform X final week claiming that “only the AfD can save Germany.”
“The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!” Musk stated within the piece.
Germany’s home intelligence company has categorized the AfD on the nationwide stage as a suspected extremism case since 2021.
Shortly after the piece was revealed on-line, the editor of the opinion part, Eva Marie Kogel, wrote on X that she had submitted her resignation, with a hyperlink to the commentary.
“Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression. This includes dealing with polarising positions and classifying them journalistically,” the newspaper’s editor-in-chief designate Jan Philipp Burgard and Ulf Poschardt, who takes over as writer on Jan. 1, informed Reuters.
They stated dialogue about Musk’s piece, which had round 340 feedback a number of hours after it was revealed, was “very revealing.”
Beneath Musk’s commentary, the newspaper revealed a response by Burgard.
“Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false,” he wrote, referencing the AfD’s want to depart the European Union and search rapprochement with Russia in addition to appease China.
The AfD backing from Musk, who additionally defended his proper to weigh in on German politics because of his “significant investments,” comes as Germans are set to vote on Feb. 23 after a coalition authorities led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed.
The AfD is operating second in opinion polls and would possibly be capable to thwart both a centre-right or centre-left majority, however Germany’s mainstream, extra centrist events have pledged to shun any help from the AfD at nationwide stage.
