Conversation between Weidel and Musk in the minutes
The starting position
Here we will document the most important statements from the conversation between AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel and Tesla boss Elon Musk. Important at this point: This conversation is not an interview. It’s not a conversation between a journalist and a politician. Two people meet here who have a common goal: to push the AfD in the election campaign. This conversation will be prepared accordingly.
The start
Elon Musk briefly introduces Weidel as the “leading candidate” who is the “most popular” of the candidates. Then Weidel can introduce the AfD. She quickly starts working on Angela Merkel. This ruined Germany “as the first green chancellor”, opened the borders and forced energy companies to switch to solar and wind energy. She switched off nuclear energy. Musk gives Weidel the space for her points of view. And then largely agree with her. “Nuclear energy is great,” says Musk.
How Weidel appears
At first Weidel seems a bit nervous and often gets confused. Your English seems immature. But Musk lets her speak and she becomes more confident. Here she has created a narrative according to which the past federal governments under Merkel and Scholz led Germany into economic ruin. She pairs tough formulations (“ridiculous government”) with tame optimism (“Germany is a great country”). Such an approach – in which Weidel tries to present the AfD as connectable and solution-oriented as possible – was expected by experts
How Musk and Weidel work together
“Yes, absolutely”, “yes, right”, “perfect”: Musk and Weidel always agree with each other. Weidel often laughs when Musk speaks. “To summarize, the AfD wants two things above all: a sensitive energy policy and a sensitive migration policy.” Weidel agrees. Weidel laughs. Musk laughs. She is given the space to complain about the fact that she is not allowed to speak openly and freely in Germany. One of Musk’s favorite topics.
Weidel repeatedly throws superlatives into the talk: “Germany has the highest taxes of all OECD countries.” “Crime is exploding in Germany.” “The education system in Germany is completely run down.” “The German government is throwing money out the window. “ Musk repeatedly says “Wow”, “YES!” or “Right!”. Again, here are two people talking with the same interest, not contradictions.
The most important topics
- Energy policy: Musk and Weidel have been involved in energy policy for a long time. The bottom line: A mix is needed in which nuclear energy plays an important role.
- Bureaucracy: Musk repeatedly brings up another favorite topic: bureaucracy. He talks about his experiences with Tesla in Germany. Both agree: the bureaucracy is too big. A solution is not presented.
- Migration: The two largely avoid this topic for almost 25 minutes. Weidel points out that “seven million people” have come to Germany since 2015. And these are just the official figures (editor’s note: around 3.5 million refugees have come to Germany since 2015, including around 1 million Ukrainians who fled the war). Musk responded that there was a “very left-wing agenda in all Western civilizations” to allow refugees into the country. Both are upset that refugees could “throw away their passport” and still be allowed to live in the country. There are “many criminals” among them, says Musk.
- Freedom of expression: “It’s clear who the bad guys are here,” says Musk. “They are the ones who restrict freedom of expression.” Weidel replies that Adolf Hitler was the first to do exactly that, abolished freedom of expression. Otherwise he would never have been able to do what he did. Musk quickly agrees from time to time. But Weidel doesn’t make it entirely clear whether she really wants to say that the current government is emulating Adolf Hitler. But “Hitler was a communist. He was not a conservative,” says Weidel. A popular legend among right-wingers.
Musk’s election campaign for the AfD
Musk repeats what he said before: “People in Germany want change. They demand change. And if you want change, then you should vote for AfD.” Experts are watching the conversation and suspect that it could be an illegal campaign donation for the AfD (Musk otherwise demands money for outreach and election advertising).
Weidel’s biggest contradiction
Weidel then complains about “election interference from outside” (e.g. that German politicians interfered in the US election campaign). While she talks to an American multi-billionaire about the German election in front of a large audience. A multi-billionaire who recently intervened in the German election campaign with harsh statements.
However, Weidel has a point here: the very politicians who commented on the US election from Germany are now complaining about Musk’s interference in Germany. So both sides are doing exactly the same thing here: complaining about the things that don’t suit them while doing the same thing.
The conclusion
Musk and Weidel address many things that are of great concern to people. But the corrective is missing for a good conversation. There is no fact checking. No objection. It is a conversation in which two people confirm their opinions and join forces. It is the expected election event for the AfD.
But above all it is a problem-oriented and backward-looking debate. Alice Weidel does not present any solutions. She apparently deliberately does not address how the problems in Germany and the major conflicts in the world that she addresses – very verbosely – could be solved. Anyone who was hoping to hear radical solutions in the style of Musk and Trump will come away empty-handed.
Instead, there is above all: a lot of approval and even more laughter.
The end
After a long section about Germany and what actually sounds like an ending plea about the AfD from Weidel, Musk and the AfD candidate talk about Ukraine, the supposed savior Trump and Israel. Weidel cannot find the right answer to the Middle East conflict. She keeps evading things, saying several times, “It’s complicated.” Musk helps her with a simple question about whether she supports Israel’s right to exist. “Yes,” says Weidel.
And as Musk wants to end the talk, Weidel suddenly asks why Musk is so keen on people flying to Mars. Musk speaks about this topic for more than ten minutes. “I haven’t seen any evidence of aliens yet,” Musk says. And that there could be an event “that wipes out humanity”. What follows is a long narrative about the transformation of man, God and the “nature of the universe”. Then everything is said for today.
-After 75 minutes the conversation is over.
Before the interview
7:00 p.m.: The space is running. More than 150,000 listeners have already joined. However, it’s not starting yet.
Weidel sends last post before conversation
5:32 p.m.: 90 minutes before her conversation with Musk began, Weidel followed up with another post on X. “In the German mainstream media, the AfD is excluded, ignored and defamed. #ElonMusk gives freedom a path,” says the AfD leader.
150 EU experts will follow and examine the conversation
3:55 p.m.: Almost 150 EU experts will follow the conversation between Elon Musk and Alice Weidel, as the online portal “Politico” reports. Accordingly, it is about examining possible violations of EU law. The EU authorities want to specifically investigate whether X is giving the AfD a disproportionate advantage in the election campaign. The evidence collected on Thursday could also serve as the basis for formal EU proceedings against Platform X.
Weidel criticized this approach directly. “An EU that uses its bureaucracy to exercise censorship on social media spreads the spirit of bondage. The #dsa threatens democracy!” wrote the AfD leader on X. (#dsa stands for the Digital Service Act)
Thursday, January 9th, 3:20 p.m.: The Bundestag administration is also interested in the public online conversation between US entrepreneur Elon Musk and AfD leader Alice Weidel. When asked whether the campaign on Musk’s Platform
In 2020, the Berlin administrative court classified advertising campaigns for former AfD politician Jörg Meuthen, which were organized by the Swiss Goal AG in the 2016 Baden-Württemberg state election campaign, as illegal party donations. At the time, it followed the legal opinion of the Bundestag administration, which had imposed a fine.
The tech billionaire Musk will meet online this Thursday with AfD leader Alice Weidel. In the evening (7 p.m.) on
The conversation, which is conducted in English, can be heard live by everyone. According to their spokesman, Musk and Weidel have not yet met in person. The AfD leader has been promoting the conversation with a countdown on X for days.
The Tesla boss had previously caused great unrest in the German federal election campaign by insulting top German politicians and saying that only the AfD could save Germany. He later reiterated his position in a text in “Welt am Sonntag”.
Unions leave Platform X in protest
Meanwhile, several unions have announced their withdrawal from Platform X. “Since Elon Musk This does not correspond to the basic values of the Construction-Agriculture-Environment Industrial Union. The service union Verdi and the Education and Science Union (GEW) also say they no longer want to use X.
