Why German politicians fear Musk’s AfD interview

Over 200,000 listeners tuned into Elon Musk’s online conversation with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), on the social media platform X yesterday. Musk has endorsed the anti-immigration party as ‘the last spark of hope’ for Germany. Reactions were expectedly tetchy in Weidel’s home country where the AfD is polling in second place ahead of snap elections in February.

For about 75 minutes, Musk and Weidel chatted about everything from energy and immigration policy to God, Hitler and life on Mars. I’d never seen Weidel act so casually. She actually giggled when Musk jokingly said ‘yes’ to her suggestion that nobody wants to be surrounded by yes men. ‘This is a completely new situation for me,’ she said, ‘I can just talk uninterruptedly.’

This is precisely what many German politicians and commentators fear – loss of control over the AfD’s output. A team of up to 150 EU officials were seconded to monitor the conversation and the algorithms used for its distribution on X.