On Thursday, Elon Musk agreed with the leader of a far-right German political party that Adolf Hitler was a communist and that leftist groups that support Palestinian interests have more in common with Nazis than his own party.
A very strange and full of misinformation conversation between Musk and Alternative for Germany (AfD) leader Alice Weidel took place on X. It came after weeks of Musk's efforts to boost the far-right party, which deep links for neo-nazism and has been monitored for suspected extremism by Germany's own intelligence services.
,[Hitler] was a communist, and he considered himself a socialist,” Weidel said in response to Musk asking about media reports linking the AfD to Nazism.
“The greatest success since that terrible era in our history was to vindicate Adolf Hitler[-wing] And the conservatives, he was the complete opposite,” Weidel said. “He was not a conservative, he was not a liberal, he was a communist, a socialist, and we are the opposite.”
“Correct,” Musk replied.
in his autobiography my campHitler – who as leader of the German Reich was responsible for the invasion of the Soviet Union and the enslavement and death of millions of its citizens – repeatedly described communism as the enemy of the German nation. He believed that Marxism was a Jewish conspiracy to control Germany and the world.
Weidel compared the views of the Nazi Party to modern leftist political groups, which support Palestine despite calls for a UN commission. Crimes against humanity perpetrated by IsraelWhile his AfD colleagues were seen last month Attending a secret meeting held by former members of a militant neo-Nazi group Famously known for burning an Israeli flag, he said, “The AfD is the only defender of the Jewish people here in Germany.”
Weidel is the AfD's candidate for chancellor in Germany's snap elections next month. As a man who previously worked in finance and lives in Switzerland with his wife, who is from Sri Lanka, and their children, he has been presented as a relatively moderate face for the party.
This is something Musk raised in an op-ed he wrote for a German newspaper last month.
“It is clearly wrong to portray the AfD as right-wing extremists, given that party leader Alice Weidel has a lesbian partner from Sri Lanka,” Musk wrote. “Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!”
Ahead of talks on Thursday, the EU said it would monitor the program to see whether it was artificially promoted among voters in Germany, which would violate region-wide Digital Services Act rules. A European Commission spokesperson told WIRED it would not comment on the content of the livestream.
Weidel cited the EU's engagement in the talks, claimed 150 EU Commission officials were listening, then claimed the DSA was a censorship tool, before adding: “You know what Adolf Hitler did ? They stopped freedom of speech. He controlled the media and without it he would never have been successful.”