FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Elon Musk took his support for Germany's far-right party to another level on Thursday, hosting a live chat with its leader, Alice Weidel.
The 74-minute conversation spanned energy policy, German bureaucracy, Adolf Hitler, Mars and the meaning of life.
The world's richest man unequivocally called on Germans to support the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in the upcoming elections.
It is the tech billionaire's latest controversial foray into European politics.
There was a significant increase in this discussion after Elon Musk faced accusations of meddling in Germany's early elections.
But the interview, conducted in English, was clearly a chance for the AfD to reach an international audience through Musk's X platform.
Knowing about his close relationship with Donald Trump, Alice Weidel made sure to express her support for the US president-elect and his team.
She insisted that her party was "conservative" and "libertarian" but had been "negatively misrepresented" by the mainstream media as extremist.
Sections of the AfD are officially classified as right-wing extremists by the German authorities.
A BBC News investigation last year found links between some party figures and far-right networks, while one of the leading lights on the party's hard right, Björn Höcke, was fined last year for using a banned phrase Nazis – although he denied knowingly doing so.
During the conversation, Weidel declared that Hitler had in fact been a "communist", despite the apparent anti-communism of the Nazi leader who invaded the Soviet Union.
"He was not a conservative," she said. "He was not a communist, a socialist." She also described Hitler as a "socialist antisemite".
On other issues, she and Musk chimed in — and sometimes laughed — about Germany's notorious bureaucracy, its "crazy" abandonment of nuclear power, the need for tax cuts, free speech and "awakening."
In a conversation that was sometimes tense and sometimes surprising, a surreal moment came when Weidel asked Musk if he believed in God.
The answer was that he is open to the idea as he seeks to "understand the universe as much as possible".
Despite all the expectations that the exchange, surely, had not been in the bingo card of many people.
The AfD, which also opposes Berlin's arms aid to Ukraine, is second in Germany, with early federal elections scheduled for February 23.
However, she will not be able to take power as other parties will not work with her.
This has not prevented Elon Musk from hailing Weidel as "the leading candidate to lead Germany".
He has justified his intervention by citing his significant investments in the country – notably a large Tesla factory outside Berlin.
And he rejected the characterization of the AfD as far-right, having previously labeled the Social Democrat chancellor, Olaf Scholz, a "fool".
Scholz, whose chances of retaining the chancellor appear remote, later insisted he was "staying calm" about Elon Musk's attacks.
But the billionaire's interventions have alarmed some leaders, who have warned against misinformation and undue influence. /BBC
Lini një Përgjigje