American billionaire Elon Musk supported the German right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in an article for the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, published on the Internet on Saturday, which caused a protest and the resignation of the editor of the section.
In the comments, which were published in German by the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, Mask expanded on his earlier post on Platform X from last week, in which he stated that "only the AfD can save Germany," according to Reuters.
"Portraying the AfD as a far-right party is patently false, given that party leader Alice Weidel has a Sri Lankan same-sex partner! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!" Musk wrote.
As early as 2021, Germany's domestic intelligence agency classified the AfD as an extremist group at the national level.
Not long after the article was published on the Internet, columnist Eva Marija Kogel announced on the X platform that she had resigned.
"Democracy and journalism thrive through freedom of expression. This includes confronting different views and their journalistic consideration," the paper's editors-in-chief Jan Filip Burgard and Ulf Poshardt, who takes over as publisher on January 1, told Reuters.
Musk has defended his right to influence German politics because of his "significant investments" and openly backed the AfD ahead of parliamentary elections on February 23 next year, which come after the fall of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government.
The AfD is currently the second political force in the polls and could prevent the center-right or center-left from winning a majority. However, the main German parties have promised not to cooperate with this party at the national level.
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