Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday expressed concern at tech billionaire Elon Musk‘s interventions in the German electoral campaign.
“What should really worry us is that a man like Elon Musk, who has great media power, is backing extreme right-wing parties in Europe, for example in the United Kingdom, in Germany and in many other countries,” Scholz said during an election rally in Schwalbach am Taunus, near the western city of Frankfurt.
“This should be criticized,” he added. Germany goes to the polls in early elections on February 23.
Musk has praised the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the “only party that can save Germany” and recently held a live conversation on his platform X with AfD leader Alice Weidel.
He has also been highly critical of Scholz and of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Scholz said that Musk was not the first wealthy conservative to attempt to use his influence during an election campaign.
“The fact that conservative media owners are running fierce campaigns against Social Democratic politicians is nothing new,” said Scholz. “They’ve always been allowed to do that.”
“The fact that it is happening from abroad is new, but it is also covered by freedom of expression,” he added.
The conservative CDU/CSU alliance, which is currently in opposition, is leading in German polls on around 30%, followed by the AfD on around 20%. Scholz’s centre-left SPD is trailing on 16%, followed by the Greens, his coalition partner, on 13%.