BERLIN (AP) — Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor in protest.
Germany will vote in a first election on February 23 after the coalition governing the triple of Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz collapsed the month in a dispute on how to revitalize the stagnant economy of the country.
Musk’s guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag —a sister publication of POLITICO owned by the Axel Springer Group — published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month he supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
“The choice for Germany (AFD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated comment.
He went on to say the far-right party “can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality.”
The Tesla Motors CEO wrote that his investment in Germany had given him the right to comment on the state of the country.
AFD intervenes strongly, however, his candidate for the first job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic possibilities because other parties refuse paintings with excessive right.
An best friend of the American elected president Donald Trump, the billionaire of generation challenged in his opinion article the public symbol of the party.
“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’s commentary has led to a debate in German media over the boundaries of free speech, with the paper’s own opinion editor announcing her resignation, pointedly on Musk’s social media platform, X.
“At all times I have enjoyed directing the opinion segment of Welt and Wams. Today, an article by Elon Musk gave the impression in Welt Am Sonntag. I resigned after its printing,” Eva Marie Kogel wrote.
A critical article through the editor in chief of The Welt Group, Jan Philipp Burgard, accompanied Musk’s opinion article.
“Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong,” Burgard wrote.
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Responding to a request for comments from the German news agency, DPA, an existing editor -in the main of The Welt Group, ULF Postchardt and Burgard, who deserve to take charge on January 1, he said in a joint that the discussion about the work on the work of the musk was “very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive in freedom of expression. “
“This will continue to the ‘World’ compass in the future. We will expand ‘Die Welt’ even more decisively as a forum for such debates,” they wrote to DPA.