BARTOSZ SIEDLIK / AFP
Elon Musk signs a pro-AfD column in a newspaper in Germany, an executive from “Die Welt” resigns.
GERMANY – He started with a tweet published on December 20. Elon Musk took part in the German electoral campaign by taking up the cause of the AfD, the far-right party. A week later, the richest man in the world developed his point of view in a German newspaper, provoking the fury of an executive from this media who chose to resign.
“I have always enjoyed running the Opinion department at Welt. Today, a text by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. Yesterday I submitted my resignation after printing”indicated Eva Marie Kogel, responsible for editorial content at The worldon X, a platform owned by Elon Musk.
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The world belongs to the Axel Springer press group, the most influential in Germany, which also includes the tabloid Bildthe most read in the country. In his text, the boss of Space X and Tesla reaffirms in this forum that “The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last glimmer of hope for this country”which is according to him “on the verge of economic and cultural collapse”. This close friend of President-elect Donald Trump praises the “controlled immigration policy” of the party, its economic objectives of “reduce taxes” or even “deregulate the market”.
“Even a genius can make mistakes. » Jan Philipp Burgard on Elon Musk in The world
Elon Musk also denounces the classification of the AfD as far-right, which he considers “clearly false”. He cites an unconvincing argument as proof; the businessman, future minister in the Trump administration, relying on the fact that Alice Weidel, the leader of the party “has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka”.
The AfD at almost 20% in the polls
Die Welt still brings a contradiction to Elon Musk. “Even a genius can make mistakes,” writes the new editor-in-chief Jan Philipp Burgard in a text in the form of a response. He claims that the extreme right “is a danger to our values and our economy” and recalls that another party leader, Björn Höcke, “was repeatedly convicted of using a banned Nazi slogan”.
In addition to the resignation of Eva Marie Kogel, Elon Musk’s pro-AfD platform once again aroused indignant reactions in a country where the party is close to 20% of voting intentions for the early legislative elections in February.
The Association of German Journalists (DJV) protested against the “election advertising” permitted by the editorial staff of Die Welt. “The German media must not allow themselves to be manipulated into being the mouthpiece of autocrats and their friends”castigates its leader Mika Beuster. “We must not allow the Elon Musks of this world, the Chinese state or Russian troll factories to undermine our democracies in Europe”also castigated Andreas Audretsch, campaign director of the Greens.
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