Following significant financial contributions to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and subsequent appointment to a leadership role, the world’s wealthiest individual is now actively engaging in European politics.
In the U.K., Musk has launched a public attack against the center-left Prime Minister, urging his imprisonment for allegedly concealing information about “grooming gangs.” In Germany, he has labeled Chancellor Olaf Scholz “incompetent” and the party president an “anti-democratic tyrant,” aligning himself with the Alternative for Germany (AfD)—a far-right party with established ties to other far-right European groups—before a critical election on February 23.
On Thursday, the South African-born Musk will participate in an X discussion with AfD leader Alice Weidel. This follows a December 28 opinion piece in Die Welt am Samstag expressing support for the party, known for its inflammatory populism, thinly veiled xenophobia, and authoritarian tendencies.
German mainstream politicians accuse Musk of interfering in domestic affairs. Musk’s defense against German intelligence services’ assessment of AfD branches centers on Weidel’s sexual orientation and partner’s ethnicity.
Musk misjudges the AfD. While the billionaire Tesla founder praises the party’s economic platform, its neoliberal stance is understated and a secondary factor in its electoral success. Eastern Germans, in particular, support the AfD due to perceived failures to address their post-unification challenges. The party’s appeal doesn’t stem primarily from its economic proposals, which aren’t prominently featured, but rather from its broader socio-political messaging.
A more informed approach would have involved supporting the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) or the liberal Free Democrats. These parties advocate for corporate and high-income tax cuts, weakening labor unions, reducing welfare benefits, and relaxing environmental regulations hindering market activity. Instead, Musk is backing a party a large segment of the German population rejects.
This strategy is already backfiring. Users and some advertisers have abandoned X, and there are calls for boycotting Tesla and X. Tesla’s Berlin gigafactory—a result of collaboration with regional Social Democrats, not the AfD—frequently encounters regulatory hurdles and faces further challenges due to this political alignment. Musk has alienated precisely the individuals he will need in the future. Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader likely to be the next Chancellor, described Musk’s Die Welt op-ed as “overbearing and presumptuous.”
Musk’s European strategy is likely to fail because the continent’s post-war institutions are designed to withstand such challenges and crises. The European Union’s primary goal is to strengthen and expand democracy, thus actively defending it.
When EU member states deviate significantly, other member states provide stabilizing support. Hungary’s recent six-month EU Council presidency serves as an example of limited influence despite its internal policies.
Despite widespread economic and other concerns, Europeans largely uphold democratic principles and condemn its opponents. Europeans value the EU, democracy, and the post-war social market economy. This is unlikely to be easily replaced by a purely business-driven model (Musk’s vision) or a racially based authoritarian state (the AfD’s).
Musk’s support for the AfD has sparked a debate about oligarchs’ influence in Germany. The magazine Der Spiegel argued that such an opinion would not significantly affect German democracy due to the resilience of German open society.
Most Europeans strive to prevent an autocratic leader like Trump from gaining power, despite Hungary’s Orbán demonstrating its possibility. All German democratic parties maintain a strict “firewall” against cooperating with the AfD. The U.K. Labour government has implemented legal limits on foreign national donations through U.K.-based companies. In Romania, courts have investigated a political party amid allegations of Russian influence and disinformation.
Musk’s ultimate goal may be to destabilize the democratic process to weaken state control over the private sector. Exposing his motives publicly would be a positive development.
This could mark a hopeful beginning to a year that may see setbacks for the far right.
