Elon Musk’s high praise for the German far-right political party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), and his recent conversation with its chancellor candidate Alice Weidel has relaunched a debate around the world’s richest man’s influence in global politics.
With little over a month to go for Germany’s federal elections, Musk took to X – a platform owned by him – saying that “only the AfD can save Germany”. He then doubled down on this claim during his chat with Weidel on Spaces, where the duo discussed everything from the Nazi Party to immigration, free speech and also ‘if god exists’.
The tech billionaire, a close confidante of US president-elect Donald Trump, has never shied away from endorsing controversial politicians. From an aerial perspective, his interest in global elections is great for his business.
In an article for one of Germany’s leading newspapers Die Welt, Musk praised the Weidal’s AfD for its plans to “reduce government overregulation, lower taxes and deregulate the market”. He also recently opened a Tesla plant in Brandenburg which stands to directly benefit from these economic policies, if AfD comes to power.
Where it all started
This is not the first time Musk has endorsed a political party or candidate.
Let’s go back to when, soon after he bought Twitter in 2022, he restored Trump’s account after a poll, as part of his vision for free speech. Since then, Musk has actively praised Trump in every campaign and bashed the outgoing Biden administration every chance he got.
In the recent US presidential polls, he contributed a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s election campaigns. His constant push for the Republican leader – aided by X’s algorithm that promotes Musk’s posts over all others – got him to become the latter’s right hand man.
“A star is born – Elon,” Trump said after declaring victory.
Even though Twitter – now X – has been a disaster since his takeover and, according to one estimate, lost nearly 80% of its value, his net worth nearly doubled since Trump’s re-election.
Now, he has been tasked with heading the president-elect’s new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, the Ohio-based venture capitalist, another right wing leader.
This proven success in American elections has prompted him to use the strategy around the world.
Eyes on UK
Musk also has a new-found interest in the United Kingdom. A report by The Financial Times found that Musk has been examining ways to destabilise the Starmer government in the United Kingdom before the next elections. He is reportedly interested in building support for another political party, notably the right-wing populist Reform UK.
In June 2024, Musk had replied to a video uploaded by Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform party, asking, “Why does the media keep calling you far-right?” To this, Farage responded, “Because we believe in family, country and strong borders. Call me!”
Then, in December, Musk was pictured with Farage and party treasurer Nick Candy at Trump’s Florida residency, Mar-a-Lago. Soon, rumours started swirling that the SpaceX tycoon was looking to donate US$ 100 million to the Reform.
However, Musk recently distanced himself from Farage. The flames between them came to surface when Musk posted on X, “The Reform party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes”.
The Reform leader responded calling it a “surprise”.
The duo is set to meet again during the grand inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20. Farage has said he wants to “mend any broken fences” with the world’s richest man.
Need for concern?
If there’s one thing that Elon Musk is good at, it is selling a vision. However, considering Musk’s companies – like Tesla and Starlink – are spread around the world, there could be a conflict of interest here. By winning political connections, is he trying to expand his business further? Will his business mind help in his political advocacy?
When the world’s richest man, who also owns a leading social media platform, tries to influence governments, the concerns are not totally unfounded.
AfD has already won a regional election in Germany, becoming the first far-right party in the country to win polls since Hitler. Moreover, its leader in Thuringia – where it won – Björn Höcke, has been twice convicted of deliberately using Nazi slogans at political events.
Now, with Musk’s involvement – considering his 212.4 million followers on X, a special algorithm and his ability to garner audience for his opinions – their reach could be further magnified.
Part of Musk’s emphasis on overhauling the present European governments is also to kill its landmark online regulation – the Digital Services Act. As per the rules, Musk and X could face penalties if EU investigators find that he manipulated the platform’s algorithm to influence voters.
In case of the UK, Musk has been notoriously boosting misinformation on X, spreading a divisive rhetoric about ‘grooming gangs’, a decade-old child sex abuse scandal the perpetrators of which were found to be of British-Pakistani origin. Since new year’s eve, Musk has been posting about it non-stop – reportedly as many as 200 posts.
Not only has this generated undue hate against the UK’s Muslim population but critics say that Musk is using the case to target the Keir Starmer government – whose Labour Party won a landslide election victory in July last year – and bolster the Reform UK, which is known for its anti-immigration stance.
In a post on X, Musk claimed that Starmer was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”. Meanwhile, he asked for Tommy Robinson – a far-right activist, political prisoner and notorious Islamophobe – to be freed.
During the communal riots that broke out in the UK in August last year, X was found to be boosting violent rhetoric, while Telegram was blocking it. This enabled misinformation and disinformation, including false claims about the suspect’s identity, nationality, religion and immigration status causing the violence to grow – all in the name of “free speech” that Musk stands by.
There have been repeated concerns and investigations suspecting censorship on the micro-blogging platform since Musk’s takeover – even for right-wing accounts. He recently faced accusations of censorship when at least 14 conservatives in the US – including some with over 1 million followers – claimed that they had lost their blue verification badge on X and faced demonetisation.
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and Trump ally, said that X had demonetised her and cut her off from the premium features two days after she criticised Musk over tech industry visas. She wrote on X, “Looks like Elon Musk is going to be silencing me for supporting original Trump immigration policies.”
The India story
In India, too, there were concerns that Musk helped the Union government censor the BBC’s Modi documentary on social media platforms. Meanwhile, his internet services by Starlink, were allegedly being used in Manipur during an internet shutdown.
Musk has been trying to enter the Indian market and be friendly with the Modi government for years, although it has not always been a smooth ride. In one of the earliest meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2015, Musk took him around the Tesla Motors’ headquarters and said he “understood his vision”.
In January last year, Musk posted on X that India should receive a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council calling it “absurd” for “the most populous country on Earth” to not have a seat.
Timing is key because just two months later, reports surfaced that Musk secured a lower import tariff for his EV company and even explored potential factory sites in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
In June, he congratulated Modi for winning Lok Sabha elections. In November, just a day after assembly election results of Maharashtra and Jharkhand were declared, he praised India’s electoral counting process, comparing it with California.
“India counted 640 million votes in 1 day. California is still counting,” Musk posted on X. However, his concern about EVMs, which he called risky, drew criticism from former IT minister of state Rajeev Chandrasekhar who called it an “oversimplification”.
While many European leaders – including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store and German chancellor Olaf Shcolz – have criticised him for interfering in domestic politics, Musk seems to have found his base among the chosen few.
For instance, Italy’s Georgia Meloni called Musk a “genius” who has been wrongly portrayed as a “monster” because of his political alignment with Donald Trump. Incidentally, Musk publicly criticised the Italian judiciary for curbing Meloni’s hard stance on migrants and attended events organised by her political party.
At a time when the world is showing signs of a right-wing ascendancy, Musk seems to be simply taking advantage of it.
But as Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Musk and his supporters say that his actions reflect a commitment to free speech and transparency, whereas his detractors argue that unchecked influence could destabilise democratic systems.
