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Elon Musk took his support for Germany’s far-right party to the next level on Thursday by hosting a live chat with its leader, Alice Weidel.
The 74-minute conversation covered energy policy, German bureaucracy, Adolf Hitler, Mars and the meaning of life.
The world’s richest man unequivocally urged Germans to back Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the upcoming elections.
It is the technology billionaire’s latest and controversial foray into European politics.
This discussion had intensified considerably when Elon Musk faced accusations of meddling in Germany’s early elections.
But the interview, conducted in English, was undoubtedly an opportunity for AfD to reach international audiences through Musk’s X platform.
Aware of her close relationship with Donald Trump, Alice Weidel made sure to express her support for the president-elect of the United States and his team.
He insisted that his party was “conservative” and “libertarian” but that the mainstream media had “negatively framed” it as extremist.
Some sections of the AfD have been officially classified as far-right by German authorities.
TO BBC News Investigation Connections were found between some party figures and far-right networks last year, while a prominent leader of the party’s far-right, Björn Höcke, was fined last year for using a banned Nazi phrase, although he denied knowingly doing so. .
During the conversation, Weidel declared that Hitler had actually been a “communist”, despite the notable anti-communism of the Nazi leader, who invaded the Soviet Union.
“He was not a conservative,” he said. “He wasn’t a libertarian. He was a communist and socialist guy.”
He also described Hitler as an “anti-Semitic socialist.”
In other matters, she and Musk talked — and sometimes laughed — about Germany’s infamous bureaucracy, its “crazy” abandonment of nuclear power, the need for tax cuts, free speech and “wokeness.”
In a sometimes stilted and sometimes surprising conversation, a surreal moment came when Weidel asked Musk if he believed in God.
The answer – for those who wish to know – was that he is open to the idea as he seeks to “understand the universe as much as possible.”
Despite all the anticipation, that exchange surely hadn’t been on many people’s bingo cards.
The AfD, which also opposes Berlin’s arms aid to Ukraine, is second in polls in Germany, with early federal elections scheduled for February 23.
However, he will not be able to take power because other parties will not work with him.
That hasn’t stopped Elon Musk from hailing Weidel as the “leading candidate to govern Germany.”
He has justified his intervention by citing his significant investments in the country, in particular a huge Tesla plant on the outskirts of Berlin.
And he dismisses the characterization of the AfD as far-right. while previously labeling the Social Democratic Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, a “fool”.
Scholz, whose chances of retaining the chancellorship appear remote, later insisted that he was “remaining calm” in the face of Elon Musk’s attacks.