WELT AM SONNTAG, one of the leading newspapers in Germany, has published a guest opinion piece written by the U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk in support of the German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD). The guest op-ed was printed together with a response from the designated editor-in-chief Jan Philipp Burghard, who juxtaposed the billionaire’s statements in his own op-ed. Headline: “Why Elon Musk is backing the AfD – and why he’s wrong.”
Publication of Musk’s op-ed has caused a great deal of uproar among the WELT editorial team. Shortly after the piece was published online, Eva Maria Kogel, the editor of the opinion section, returned to Elon Musk’s platform X after years of abstinence to explain: “Today, a text by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I submitted my resignation yesterday after it was printed.” In response, several WELT editors rallied to Kogel’s side.
Even a German federal minister weighed in on the pro and contra article when Health Minister Karl Lauterbach took to X, stating: “Respect for those who opposed publication. The increasing ease with which political power can be bought will have detrimental effects on democracy. If newspapers go along with this, they are digging their own grave and are no better than social media.” The official organization representing German journalists, DJV, issued a press release specifically addressing Musk’s article and condemning what they perceive as the “carte blanche given to the right-wing populist billionaire Elon Musk.”
The recent uproar sheds light on the lack of political culture in Germany. Over the years, DIE WELT has published numerous articles criticizing the AfD. The newspaper has also featured guest contributions from left-wing politicians and other authors who do not necessarily align with the paper’s editorial stance, including former leaders of the Left Party. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek is another regular contributor to DIE WELT. In his last book, he wrote: “What we need today is a Left that dares to speak its name, not a Left that shamefully covers up its core with some cultural fig leaf. And this name is communism.” As a clearly formulated goal, he proposed that “the opposing class has to be destroyed.” Incidentally, this is a man who proudly had a picture taken in which you can see a photo of Stalin above his bed and who has praised Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ as a model for other countries, despite the fact that Mao’s socialist experiment cost the lives of 45 million Chinese citizens.
In none of these cases did a WELT editor resign, nor did the journalists’ association protest, or even a single federal minister express their concerns for democracy. Unlike Musk’s contributions, these guest articles were printed without comment, and there was no “contra” viewpoint provided by the editor-in-chief.
I greatly admire Elon Musk for his entrepreneurial accomplishments. By creating Starship, he has achieved something that no government space agency in the world has managed in decades and has already left an indelible mark on history.
And that is just one of the many great achievements of this brilliant and exceptional entrepreneur. In my view, he also often gets things right politically, for example with his support for the libertarian Argentinian President Javier Milei. However, when it comes to the AfD, it appears that he may not be fully informed. He rightly praises the AfD’s stance on nuclear power and also highlights the failed migration and energy policies criticized by the AfD. If the AfD were as Musk describes it, I could also support the party. But it’s not like that.
Musk only briefly addresses the accusation of right-wing extremism that have been leveled at the AfD: “The portrayal of the AfD as rightwing 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!” But does Alice Weidel’s lesbian relationship negate the accusations of her party’s right-wing extremism? I think that’s an absurd argument. It is well known that Ernst Röhm, the leader of the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary wing, the SA, was also homosexual – homosexuality and right-wing extremism are not mutually exclusive.
In any case, I don’t believe that the AfD’s chairwoman Alice Weidel is a right-wing extremist. But Elon Musk’s perceptions of the AfD are about ten years out of date. Unfortunately, the party has changed a lot over the last decade or so. Musk depicts the AfD as an economically libertarian party, whereas, in reality, it has been steadily infiltrated by anti-capitalists, who have since gained more and more influence. Some party figures even openly identify with the teachings of Marx and Engels and label libertarians such as Ludwig von Mises or Friedrich August von Hayek as their adversaries.
There is a particularly strong anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism within the political party in Germany’s eastern federal states. Elon Musk should probably have known about this, especially as the Brandenburg branch of the AfD opposed the construction and subsequent plans to expand Musk’s Tesla factory. The AfD politician Kathi Muxel led the way, aggressively positioning herself as an opponent of Tesla’s plans. The AfD stood on the same front as left-wing anti-capitalists in demonstrating against Tesla.
Musk also overlooks the fact that large sections of the AfD at least downplay the actions of the Russian dictator Putin. Speeches by AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla sound as if they were written in the Kremlin. And Chrupalla – wearing a tie in the colors of the Russian flag – proudly celebrated the day of the Soviet Union’s victory over Hitler’s Germany at the Russian embassy.
In a recent interview, Chrupalla fantasized about leaving NATO and spoke out against supporting Israel. Incidentally, all this distinguishes someone like Chrupalla from Javier Milei, who is clearly pro-Ukraine, anti-Putin, and pro-NATO.
So, there are many aspects of the Musk article that can be criticized. However, one thing that cannot be faulted is the fact that DIE WELT published it in the first place. The controversy surrounding the publication highlights the leftward shift of the political spectrum in Germany: Nobody is upset about the frequent guest contributions by a devotee of Stalin and Mao (except me), but many are up in arms about the publication of a pro-AfD article and a response by DIE WELT’s editor-in-chief. And all this while Germany, which has been economically ruined by the policies of Merkel and the Greens, has completely different problems.
