In the six weeks since Donald Trump won the presidential election, Europe has braced for a U.S. administration that could strain traditional transatlantic alliances.
This feeling of uncertainty has just been reinforced by a disruptive new force: multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who has made it clear that he wants to leave his mark on politics not only in Washington, but also in Europe.
On Friday, as U.S. lawmakers struggled to avert a looming government shutdown, Musk used his social media platform from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party ruling coalition.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk wrote, using the German initials for Alternative for Germany, the party best known for its strident anti-immigrant stance, its longstanding ties to neo-Nazis and the “extremist” label of Germany’s domestic intelligence service has given up its youth wing.
The world's richest man has previously made provocative statements about German politics, but the timing of his latest comments coincided with signals that he intends to parlay his position as head of an advisory commission on government efficiency under Trump into a wide-ranging role in the new U.S. administration to transform – caused unrest not only in Germany, but throughout Europe.
Establishment parties and governments elsewhere on the continent are feeling vulnerable after a series of anti-systemic reactions, including the ouster of French Prime Minister Michel Barnier this month, a major blow to President Emmanuel Macron, who appointed him.
Major organizations, including the European Union and NATO, are also watching and fearing the possibility of destabilizing actions by Trump, which could include protracted trade disputes and a withdrawal of key U.S. military support to Ukraine, which is targeting a nearly three-year-old country wants to defend against a complete invasion of Russia.
Musk's foray into German politics came shortly after far-right British politician Nigel Farage, who has been a fixture in Trump's circle for years, said this week that the South African-born Tesla and Space The British Party is considering its reform – leading to calls for swift action to tighten Britain's rules on political donations, which are already far stricter than those in the United States.
In Germany, Europe's economic power and political center, Musk's comments shook the political establishment – and sparked expressions of joy from supporters of the AfD, whose nationalist-populist message helped it break through in state and European Parliament elections this year out of.
The party hopes to mount a strong challenge to Friedrich Merz, the leading candidate to replace Scholz in a federal vote expected in February, but other leading political blocs have already said they would not accept the AfD as a coalition partner.
AfD leader Alice Weidel quickly thanked Musk for his online vote of confidence and declared: “You’re absolutely right!”
In a video posted on
Scholz has been something of a punching bag to his opponents across the political spectrum over Germany's faltering economy, but Musk's broadside prompted some of his main rivals to jump to his defense – often with caustic comments about Musk.
“Usually we hear that Elon Musk is this gifted prodigy, but when I hear these comments, I have to doubt that,” said Alexander Throm of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, which is leading public opinion polls ahead of February's vote. legal broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Another Christian Democrat politician, MP Dennis Radtke, branded Musk's comments as interference in the German elections. In an interview with Handelsblatt, he described the comments as “threatening, irritating and unacceptable”.
A rare endorsement came from a leading politician in the party, considered the most left-wing party in Germany's political mix. “He doesn’t really contribute anything politically,” said Clara Bünger from the Left Party about Musk.
“He doesn’t really know how political discussions work in Germany,” she said.
Scholz himself remained at least partially true to his typical reserved political style in his reaction to this episode. Without naming Musk, he pointed out that Germany's political system allows freedom of expression, which “also applies to multi-billionaires.”
But the chancellor used harsher language than usual to question Musk's characterization of the AfD as a national savior. The freedom to express oneself, he said pointedly, “also means that you can say things that are not right and are not good political advice.”
Musk also made fun of the collapse of the governing coalition and once tweeted in German that the Chancellor was a “fool”. Scholz replied at the time that the comment was “not very friendly”.
The billionaire entrepreneur-turned-efficiency expert has previously spoken out about the AfD, expressing astonishment at the general unease it is causing in Germany given echoes of the country's Nazi past.
The country has legal bans on the use of Third Reich-style language and symbols, and there has been more than one case in which an AfD member was prosecuted for violating these laws.
“You keep saying 'far right,' but the AfD's policies I've read about don't sound extremist,” Musk posted in June. “Maybe I’m missing something.”
In the United States, Trump's appointment of Musk has led to little opposition within his own Republican Party. In Europe, however, there is much more caution.
After British politician Farage was pictured posing with Musk at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort this week, Farage confirmed that a potentially huge donation from Musk to his party could be in play – $100 million, according to at least one British report – Some British lawmakers and transparency advocates urged action to prevent such an unprecedented influx of foreign money.
While the UK limits how much political parties spend on elections, there is no cap on donations from the UK. Musk could get around this by registering the UK arm of X in the UK.
“It is vital that British voters have confidence in the financing of our political system,” British Electoral Commission chief executive Vijay Rangarajan told the Guardian newspaper. “The system needs to be strengthened.”
Musk has made his disdain for Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the left-leaning Labor Party clear and has frequently criticized Britain's immigration and policing policies.
Farage, in turn, cites Trump as a populist role model and shares the elected president's aversion to bodies such as the European Union. His Reform Party received about 14% of the vote in the June election, its strongest showing ever.