Vote meddling fears as Musk hosts German far-right leader

Elon Musk has urged Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in an upcoming general election during a broadcast he hosted with the party's co-leader on his social media platform X.

Last year, Mr Musk used X and his vast wealth to help Republican candidate Donald Trump win the 5 November presidential election in the United States.

Now he is becoming vocal in his support for far-right and anti-establishment parties in Europe ahead of the vote in Germany on 23 February.

The world's richest man has shown particular interest in Germany, where he opened Tesla's first European plant in 2022.

Mr Musk introduced AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, whose party is second in polls but has almost no chance of forming a government due to the refusal by others to work with it, as "the leading candidate to run Germany".

In a conversation punctured by giggles from both parties, the two agreed that Germany was hamstrung by a "crazy" energy policy, excessive bureaucracy and uncontrolled immigration.

"People really need to get behind AfD, otherwise things are going to get very, very much worse in Germany," Mr Musk said.

"I think Alice Weidel is a very reasonable person. Nothing outrageous is being proposed."

He was doubling down on his endorsement last month of the AfD, an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party deemed as right-wing-extremist by German security services, which has caused consternation in Berlin.

Speaking in fluent English, Ms Weidel expressed gratitude for Mr Musk's support, saying the opportunity to speak with him was the first time in ten years that she had been allowed a platform to say her piece without interruption from a media world that, she said, was biased against her.

"People love to censor things they don't agree with," Mr Musk agreed.

The two compared the media and German politicians' response to the AfD to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's treatment of pro-Jewish voices in the 1930s.

Leaders across Europe have expressed alarm over Mr Musk's political activities.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accused him of undermining democracy, without directly naming him, while France's foreign minister urged the European Union to use its laws more robustly to guard against outside interference.

Ireland's European Commissioner Michael McGrath said the commission had strong powers to act if the discussion breached EU law.

Mr Musk, who describes himself as a libertarian, has described German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a "tyrant" for criticising the AfD and called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to resign after a deadly car attack on a German Christmas market. Both men belong to the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

The owner of Tesla cars and Space X recently doubled down on his support for the AfD, describing the party as "the last hope for Germany" in an opinion piece for Welt Am Sonntag newspaper.

Last August, he held a similar talk with Mr Trump, who has since tasked the entrepreneur with leading a drive to make the US government more efficient.

Mr Musk is in a bitter dispute with the British government over accusations he has levelled at Prime Minister Keir Starmer and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips over historic crimes committed by grooming gangs in the north of England.

In his chat with Ms Weidel, Mr Musk recalled the bureaucratic hurdles he had to go through to open the German Tesla plant.

"I think it was 25,000 pages was our permit. And it had to be all printed on paper," he said.

"And then there has to be many, many copies made. So it literally was a truck of paper."

On energy, Mr Musk backed Germany's renewable ambitions but agreed with Ms Weidel that turning off the nuclear power plants was a bad idea.

"When I saw that Germany was turning off the power plants after being cut off from gas supplies from Russia, I thought ... this is one of the craziest things I've ever seen," he said.

Mr McGrath said the risk was that Mr Musk could use in-built algorithms to artificially boost the prominence of the conversation in a way that would advantage the AfD in the forthcoming German election.

"The issue at hand is whether there is unfair amplification of certain content," he said ahead of the conversation being broadcast.

"There is never an issue or problem with the conducting of any interview. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in the European Union, and it falls to me to ensure that that right is upheld and protected at all times.

"But clearly, very large online platforms have enormous power, and they have the ability to amplify certain content above and beyond other content.

"When it comes to the conduct of elections, we do have to make sure that our elections are conducted in a free and fair manner without undue interference."

As Justice Commissioner, Mr McGrath will be bringing forward legislation later this year to launch the EU's so-called Democracy Shield, designed to protect European elections from interference and manipulation by outside actors.

His commission colleague, Henna Virkkunen, is responsible for the Digital Safety Act (DSA), which legally obliges large social media platforms, such as X, to ensure there is proper content moderation and that harmful content is removed.

Mr McGrath said: "The [European] Commission services stand ready to step in where necessary where we believe that the Digital Services Act has been breached."

The commission is already conducting an investigation into X - launched in December 2023 - over whether the platform complies with the risk mitigation obligation under the DSA, how it moderates content, advertising transparency, allowing access to researchers, the awarding of blue ticks, and whether X operates so-called dark patterns - that manipulate users into making decisions they would not otherwise make.

Mr McGrath said that investigation was a standalone one that had to "follow due process".

The commission, he added, would come to a conclusion once the appropriate evaluation has been concluded.

Mr McGrath said: "It is the use of the technological tools in an unfair manner that could potentially influence elections, [that] is where the commission has the power to step in where required, but that will be used only on a case by case basis and always based on the evidence that we can assemble."

The Digital Services Act was proposed before Mr Musk took over Twitter, rebranding it as X.

Asked if the legislation had been overtaken by recent events, Mr McGrath said the act was "a very powerful legislative tool" which would be used judiciously by the European Commission.

"We have to, on the one hand, protect freedom of speech, which is a fundamental right, but on the other hand, ensure that these very large online platforms do not use the powerful tools at their disposal to amplify certain messages with a view to influencing the outcome of elections.

"We stand ready to act and to intervene using the DSA where appropriate. There are very significant penalties at the disposal of the commission, including large fines [based on a] percentage of global turnover of companies.

"But these are steps that we don't wish to take. The commission will only intervene on the basis of evidence," he said.

Additional reporting Tony Connelly