Elon Musk further involved himself in Germany's politics on Thursday, hosting a leader of a far-right party for an audio livestream on X and urging its citizens to cast their ballots for Alice Weidel's Alternative for Germany party in the elections next month. "I'm really strongly recommending that people vote for AfD," Musk told the audience during the discussion, CNBC reports. "Only AfD can save Germany," he said at another point, per CNN. The billionaire and Donald Trump ally called Weidel, whose party is classified as a "suspected extremist organization" by German intelligence services, "very reasonable."
Musk tripped up at the beginning, per Politico Europe. "Welcome to the conversation with Alice Weidel, who is currently the leading candidate to run Germany, I think," he said, mispronouncing the last name of the person running for chancellor. She answered with a couple of "hmms" before thanking Musk for the question when he asked her to address perceptions of the AfD as "somehow associated with Nazism or something like that"—including "Hitler and whatnot." Weidel answered that Hitler "was a communist and he considered himself as a socialist." The members of the AfD, she said, "are exactly the opposite."
There was much agreement and praising of the other during the 85-minute discussion, which was conducted in English. Musk and Weidel concurred that taxes are too high in Germany, that there is too much immigration, and that the country should not shut down nuclear power plants, per the AP. The party's platform advocates mass deportations, cutting social and welfare support, and ending restrictions on combustion engine vehicles. Midway through, 200,000 people were listening to the chat, per the Washington Post. Lawmakers are investigating whether the programming amounts to an illegal party donation under German law. (More Elon Musk stories.)
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