Musk said that the AfD supports the kinds of policies for Germany that have made success possible for the companies he runs in the United States.
Elon Musk has strengthened his endorsement of German right-wing political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), defending it against accusations of extremism and championing its policies as the nation’s best path forward during challenging times.
Writing in a Dec. 28 op-ed in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Musk
said that the AfD supports the kinds of policies for Germany that have made success possible for the companies he runs in the United States—such as Tesla and SpaceX. The policies Musk cited include promoting economic freedom, reducing government overreach, cutting taxes, and rolling back regulations.
Musk also took aim at Germany’s mainstream parties, which he said have “failed” Germany. “Their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest, and an erosion of national identity,” Musk wrote, according to a basic translation of the piece.
He also objected to labeling the AfD as extremist. “The AfD, even though it is described as right-wing extremist, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel that their concerns are ignored by the establishment,” Musk wrote. “It addresses current problems—without the political correctness that often obscures the truth.”
The AfD has been labeled as right-wing extremist 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 legitimate critiques of government policy, which they say are based on pragmatic concerns rather than extremist ideology.
However, some members of the party have had ties to extremist groups. In November, the AfD
expelled several of its members with ties to an extremist, secessionist, militant movement called the Saxonian Separatists, which seeks to restore the former Kingdom of Saxony in the eastern part of the country and whom German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described as “right-wing terrorists” plotting to overthrow the government.
The AfD
holds various conservative positions, including around traditional family values, national sovereignty, and cultural preservation against perceived threats from European integration and radical Islamization. AfD positions also include advocacy for strict border security and the expulsion of illegal immigrants, a position that is also held by President-elect Donald Trump who has vowed to deport millions of people unlawfully residing in the United States.
Like Trump, Musk opposes illegal immigration, although he strongly
supports controlled, merit-based legal immigration—including efforts to attract the world’s top talent to fill positions in America’s tech industry to ensure that American values continue to lead the world in critical industries like artificial intelligence. In his op-ed in Welt am Sonntag, Musk endorsed the AfD’s immigration proposals.
Musk’s latest remarks about the AfD mirror his prior comments on social media platform X, where he
posted that “only AfD can save Germany,” in response to a post from Libs of TikTok that showed a compilation of German newspaper headlines suggesting that migrant criminals in Germany were in some cases being treated more favorably than their victims who are German citizens.
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. However, Germany’s mainstream centrist parties remain committed to excluding the AfD from any collaboration at the national level.
In September, the AfD secured a
historic win in a state election in the German state of Thuringia and finished a close second behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in neighboring Saxony. Earlier in June, the AfD made a strong second-place showing in elections to the European Parliament.
In a nation where centrist politics have dominated since the end of World War II, the AfD’s victory in Thuringia and strong results in Saxony were seen by some Germans as a shocking development, while others welcomed it as a significant shift.
