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German leader is more worried about Musk’s backing of a far-right party than his insults

"Your turn America - Social Democrats fend off AfD in crucial German state election, according to exit polls"

Updated 3:50 AM GMT+11, January 5, 2025

Related: Musk projects his hard-right influence in Europe
The ever-more powerful Tesla and SpaceX chief is turning his gaze on Europe, where many governments are already grappling with the rise of populism and the far-right.
[...]Musk's political initiatives are intimately linked to his economic interests, experts suggest.
P - For Musk and Trump, "democracy, debate, disagreement, state welfare systems all get in the way of business," said Ilan Kapoor, a professor at Toronto's York University known for his critical research on neo-liberalism.
P - "This is why they look favorably towards more authoritarian forms of government, which they think can function more efficiently, by eliminating political opposition and cutting down the role of government (although the contradiction is that they need a lot of state intervention when it comes to their 'law and order' agenda)."
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/musk-projects-his-hard-right-influence-in-europe/
1st linked here .. [...]Does Brain Size Matter?
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BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he’s staying “cool” against critical personal comments made by Elon Musk but finds it worrying that the U.S. billionaire makes the effort to get involved in a general election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Scholz was reacting after Musk, a close ally to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, called the chancellor a “fool” after his coalition government collapsed in November and later backed the AfD in an opinion piece he wrote for a major newspaper in Germany.

Scholz, head of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), said in comments published Saturday by the German magazine Stern that there is “nothing new” in criticism by “rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not hold back with their opinions.”

“You have to stay cool,” Scholz told Stern.

“I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk is supporting a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing extremist, which preaches rapprochement with Putin’s Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations,” Scholz said.

The AfD is monitored by Germany’s domestic intelligence service on suspicion of being right-wing extremist and has already been recognized as such .. https://apnews.com/article/germany-far-right-afd-intelligence-extremism-court-50728dd01da83efd26cb22fa4eefbfc5 .. in some individual German states.

Germany will hold an early parliamentary electionon Feb. 23 after Scholz’s thee-party coalition collapsed in November in a dispute over how to revitalize the country’s stagnant economy.

The vice chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, also warned Musk against getting involved in Germany’s politics.

“Hands off our democracy, Mr. Musk!” Habeck said in an interview with the Spiegel magazine.

“The combination of enormous wealth, control over information and networks, the use of artificial intelligence and the willingness to ignore rules is a frontal attack on our democracy,” said Habeck, the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor.

Musk recently caused uproar after backing the AfD in an opinion piece for the Welt am Sonntag, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor, Eva Marie Kogel, in protest.

“The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated commentary.

The Tesla Motors CEO also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country’s condition.

The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party.

https://apnews.com/article/germany-musk-scholz-election-afd-f621bbb93974c656c9a75b10da4413f0