German Chancellor Takes Apparent Jab at Elon Musk in New Year’s Address

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a media briefing in Berlin on Nov. 5, 2024. Annegret Hilse/Reuters

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz offered a New Year’s address in which he seemed to admonish potential concern about billionaire Elon Musk’s influence on the country’s upcoming elections.

The future of Germany “will not be decided by the owners of social media channels,” Scholz said in a Dec. 31 address.

“It won’t be the person who yells loudest who will decide where Germany goes from here—rather, that will be up to the vast majority of reasonable and decent people,” he said.

Musk recently expressed support for the controversial Alternative for Germany (AfD) in an op-ed for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

The Dec. 28 op-ed, which appeared to prompt a resignation from the commentary editor, included Musk criticizing the nation’s mainstream parties for producing economic stagnation, among other things.

In the commentary, Musk expanded on his post on social media platform X saying 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 said in the piece.

The AfD has been labeled a right-wing extremist political party by domestic intelligence agencies in some German states. Officials in Germany have said that AfD members reject the basic liberal democratic order that prevails in the country.

AfD party leaders reject the extremist label, describing it as a smear meant to discredit their critiques of government policy, which they say are legitimate and based on pragmatic concerns rather than extremist ideology.

In December, Scholz lost a parliamentary vote of confidence, teeing up an election for February 2025.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck also offered a New Year’s address in which he criticized Musk.

“Musk is strengthening those who are weakening Europe,” Habeck said. “A weak Europe is in the interest of those for whom regulation is an inappropriate limitation of their power.”

Their arguments came as Musk prepares to help President-elect Donald Trump lead part of an advisory commission for the U.S. government called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Part of his and Trump adviser Vivek Ramaswamy’s goals in leading DOGE is to pursue reasonable deregulation.

Both have also been caught in the headlines recently for comments they made in support of exceptional legal foreign workers joining the U.S. workforce as part of the United States’ immigration debate.

AfD positions also include advocacy for strict border security and the expulsion of illegal immigrants. The AfD is currently polling in second place in Germany and could potentially disrupt the formation of either a center-right or center-left majority.

Tom Ozimek and Reuters contributed to this report.