More Worried About Musk's Backing of Far-Right AfD Than Insult: Olaf Scholz

Berlin: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he is staying “cool” in response to critical personal comments made by Elon Musk. However, Scholz finds it concerning that the US billionaire is actively involving himself in Germany's general election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Musk, a close aide to US President-elect Donald Trump, had called Scholz a “fool” after his coalition government collapsed in November. He later voiced his support for the AfD in an opinion piece for a major German newspaper.

Scholz, head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), told a German magazine on Saturday that there is “nothing new” in the criticism from “rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not hold back with their opinions.” “You have to stay cool,” Scholz added.

“I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk is supporting a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing extremist, which preaches rapprochement with Putin's Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations,” Scholz said.

The AfD is monitored by Germany's domestic intelligence service on suspicion of being right-wing extremist and has already been recognised as such in some individual German states.

Germany will hold an early parliamentary election on February 23 after Scholz's thee-party coalition collapsed in November in a dispute over how to revitalise the country's stagnant economy.

Musk recently caused uproar after backing the AfD in an opinion piece for the Welt am Sonntag, leading to the resignation of the paper's opinion editor, Eva Marie Kogel, in protest.

“The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated commentary.

The Tesla Motors CEO also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country's condition.

The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party.

(with agency inputs)