{"id":2388532,"date":"2025-01-09T19:02:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T00:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musk-says-only-afd-can-save-germany-in-talk-with-german-right-wing-leader-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T19:05:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T00:05:59","slug":"musk-says-only-afd-can-save-germany-in-talk-with-german-right-wing-leader-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musk-says-only-afd-can-save-germany-in-talk-with-german-right-wing-leader-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk says &#8216;only AfD can save Germany&#8217; in talk with German right-wing leader- Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmusk-says-only-afd-can-save-germany-in-talk-with-german-right-wing-leader-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2388532&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In a recent livestreamed interview, tech billionaire Elon Musk\u200c spoke with Alice Weidel, the co-chairwoman of Germany&#8217;s far-right populist party, Option for Germany (AfD). Musk expressed strong\u200d support for weidel&#8217;s party, declaring it as the only viable option to\u2063 preserve \u200cGermany&#8217;s way \u200bof <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">life amidst current\u200d political challenges<\/a>. weidel positioned \u200cAfD \u2064as a libertarian conservative party aiming to \u2062reduce the state&#8217;s role \u2062in citizens&#8217; lives adn encourage self-reliant\u2062 thinking. She criticized\u200c the current government\u2019s policies, particularly regarding immigration \u200cand energy management, claiming that\u2062 they have led \u2062to Germany&#8217;s decline in prosperity. AfD,\u200b which has gained traction in recent years, is currently ranked third among German political parties. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/poland-deploys-thousands-of-troops-to-belarusian-border-amid-ongoing-tensions\/\" title=\"Poland sends troops to Belarus border amidst tensions.\">parliamentary elections approaching<\/a>,this conversation underscores the party&#8217;s rising influence and \u200dits alignment with Musk\u2019s critique of Western political ideologies.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Musk says &lsquo;only AfD can save Germany&rsquo; in talk with German populist leader<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1922352\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/elon-musk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Tech billionaire Elon Musk<\/a> held a live interview with the leader of Germany&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign-policy\/3272596\/german-government-criticizes-elon-musk-influence-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Alternative for Germany<\/a> party on Thursday.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Alice Weidel, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, co-chairwoman, joined the mogul in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">livestreamed X space<\/a> to pitch her party as an alternative to the European power&rsquo;s entrenched policy agenda, which she sees as an existential threat to the nation.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are a Libertarian conservative party. We would like to free the people from the state,&rdquo; Weidel said. &ldquo;I would like to have a state that is minimized in its functions.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>She continued, &ldquo;I would like to have independently thinking, well-educated people with the freedom to form their own opinion.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Musk gave a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-elise-stefanik-announces-she-is-pregnant-with-her-first-child\/\" title=\"Rep. Elise Stefanik Announces She Is Pregnant With Her First Child\">full-throated endorsement<\/a> of Weidel and her party, claiming they are the only hope for preserving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/germany\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Germany&rsquo;s<\/a> way of life.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;My recommendation to the people in Germany is &hellip; if you are unhappy with the situation, you must vote for change,&rdquo; Musk said.<\/p>\n<p>He added, &ldquo;I think only AfD can save Germany. End of story.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>AfD was founded approximately 11 years ago as a populist, right-wing opposition party. The group started small but over the last few years began gaining ground in the electorate due to its uniquely nationalist and anti-immigration stances. Its rise is part of a much broader rightward shift in a nation defined for decades by its left-leaning, progressive politics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/olaf-scholz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">German Chancellor Olaf Scholz<\/a> was forced to dissolve parliament late last year after the ruling &ldquo;traffic light coalition&rdquo; &mdash; consisting of the Social Democratic Party, Free Democratic Party, and Green Party &mdash; imploded due to infighting.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3261808\/germany-government-dissolves-no-confidence-vote-snap-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">vote of confidence<\/a>, 394 members of Parliament voted &ldquo;no&rdquo; and 207 voted &ldquo;yes,&rdquo; with 116 members abstaining. Parliamentary elections are slated for next month.<\/p>\n<p>Recent polls have shown AfD is currently ranked third among political parties in Germany, sitting behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union.<\/p>\n<p>During the interview, Weidel dismissed the center-right parties of Germany as functionally leftist.<\/p>\n<p>Musk and Weidel bonded during the interview over their mutual distaste for the general sociopolitical philosophy they perceive in Western government bureaucracies and school systems &mdash; which the German politician called at various points &ldquo;woke,&rdquo; &ldquo;leftist,&rdquo; &ldquo;socialist,&rdquo; and &ldquo;nonsensical.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our country has been governed not in a proper way for the last 20-25 years,&rdquo; Weidel said.<\/p>\n<p>The AfD co-chairwoman pointed to a series of policy changes that took place in the 2010&rsquo;s as the beginning of Germany&rsquo;s wane in prosperity, drawing specific attention to immigration and energy legislation.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In my point of view, [Angela Merkel], the first Green chancellor, she basically ruined our country,&rdquo; Weidel said, rebuking the former leader for opening Germany to mass migration &ldquo;without asking the people.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Weidel argued, the German government began crippling the national power supply by pursuing ill-fated green energy initiatives that ultimately closed their nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You cannot run an industrial country with just wind and solar,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We stand for an energy supply diversification. We cannot run an industrial country like Germany, with a still strong manufacturing base &hellip; like that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alice Weidel, federal spokeswoman of the Alternative for Germany party attends the presentation of her candidacy for Chancellor in the 2025 federal elections in Berlin, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (Carsten Koall\/dpa via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Musk asked Weidel to respond to critics of her party who associate right-wing politics in Germany with the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n<p>Weidel rejected the comparison, saying, &ldquo;[Hitler] was a communist and he considered himself as a socialist.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>She continued, &ldquo;[Their] biggest success after that terrible era in our history was to label Hitler as right-wing and conservative. He wasn&rsquo;t conservative, he wasn&rsquo;t libertarian. He was a communist, socialist guy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The chairwoman expressed concern for German Jews, who she claimed are &ldquo;exposed to Muslim crime&rdquo; amid widespread demonstrations against Israel and &ldquo;not safe&rdquo; anymore. She attributed this climate to &ldquo;deeply rooted antisemitism&rdquo; in the &ldquo;leftist movement.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;With all these demonstrations of the Palestinians here, a Jew could not walk through the street anymore and we have a huge potential of antisemitic crime against the Jewish people,&rdquo; Weidel told Musk.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The AfD is the only protector &hellip; of the Jewish people here in Germany because &hellip; all other parties did the exact opposite,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;They let millions of people in, let them do crimes on our streets.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Musk and Weidel broke briefly from discussing politics to talk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/religion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">religion<\/a>, with Weidel asking Musk if he believed in a god.<\/p>\n<p>Musk responded that he is &ldquo;open to the idea of God&rdquo; or &ldquo;some entity that you could call God&rdquo; who is responsible for the creation of the universe but clarified, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a separate question from whether there is some entity observing our daily actions.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I try to form my opinions based on what I learn,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Weidel in turn told Musk that she is &ldquo;still on a search.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to believe,&rdquo; she said, calling herself &ldquo;maybe agnostic.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Other topics touched upon in the interview included colonization of Mars, Israeli security, crime in the United States, and freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>Musk&rsquo;s public support of the AfD is part of his wider, international campaign to elevate right-wing, conservative political actors in Western nations.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Aside from his prominent affiliation with President-elect Donald Trump&rsquo;s incoming administration, he has also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign-policy\/3279244\/musk-comments-uk-officials-grooming-gang-scandal-hurt-relations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"weighed in on the failure of the British government\">weighed in on the failure of the British government<\/a> to address a decades-old scandal involving &ldquo;grooming gangs&rdquo;, mostly made up of men of Pakistani Muslim origin.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;U.K. politicians are selling your daughters for votes,&rdquo; Musk wrote Wednesday on social media.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1922352\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1922352\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Musk claims &#8216;only AfD can save Germany&#8217; in interview with leader<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3468,"featured_media":2388534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AP25001083559339.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[47181,3946,4250,10170],"class_list":["post-2388532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-afd","tag-germany","tag-musk","tag-right-wing"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AP25001083559339.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2388536,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388532\/revisions\/2388536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2388534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}