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Tech billionaire 's new opinion article in Germany's Welt am Sonntag led the newspaper's opinion editor to resign.
Newsweek reached out to Musk's social media platform X, formerly , via email for comment from the tech tycoon and the WELT Group via email for comment on the editor's resignation Saturday afternoon.
Musk, the owner of X, and the CEO of car manufacturer and space tech company , has cozied up to President-elect , especially after his November election win. Now, Musk has grown his influence abroad, appearing in a German newspaper to support the country's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The AfD party is viewed by many as far right and, according to Reuters, the party, at the national level, has been classified by Germany's domestic intelligence agency as a suspected extremism case starting in 2021.
Following the online publication of Musk's commentary on Saturday, which was written in German, Eva Marie Kogel, the editor of Welt am Sonntag's opinion section, quickly resigned.
"I always enjoyed heading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print," Kogel on X early Saturday morning, according to an English translation of the post written in German.
Musk wrote in the opinion piece, according to an English translation by Reuters, "The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!"
Welt am Sonntag published a statement by the newspaper's editor-in-chief designate Jan Philipp Burgard underneath Musk's commentary.
"Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false," he wrote.
The tech tycoon's opinion piece on X on December 20, "Only the AfD can save Germany."
The AfD became the first party considered by many to be far-right to come out victorious in a state election in Germany since the World War II when it won Brandenburg in September.
While the majority of Germans see the party in a negative light, in a Pew Research Center survey conducted from January 11 to March 20 is the highest recorded in the Center's eight years of conducting surveys on the topic.
At the same time, other German parties have seen their popularity wane, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social (SPD)'s popularity dropping from 67 percent in 2022 to 39 percent this year, according to the Pew Research Center's poll that surveyed 1,008 German adults.
Newsweek reached out to Musk's social media platform X, formerly , via email for comment from the tech tycoon and the WELT Group via email for comment on the editor's resignation Saturday afternoon.
Musk, the owner of X, and the CEO of car manufacturer and space tech company , has cozied up to President-elect , especially after his November election win. Now, Musk has grown his influence abroad, appearing in a German newspaper to support the country's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The AfD party is viewed by many as far right and, according to Reuters, the party, at the national level, has been classified by Germany's domestic intelligence agency as a suspected extremism case starting in 2021.
Following the online publication of Musk's commentary on Saturday, which was written in German, Eva Marie Kogel, the editor of Welt am Sonntag's opinion section, quickly resigned.
"I always enjoyed heading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print," Kogel on X early Saturday morning, according to an English translation of the post written in German.
Musk wrote in the opinion piece, according to an English translation by Reuters, "The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!"
Welt am Sonntag published a statement by the newspaper's editor-in-chief designate Jan Philipp Burgard underneath Musk's commentary.
"Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false," he wrote.
The tech tycoon's opinion piece on X on December 20, "Only the AfD can save Germany."
The AfD became the first party considered by many to be far-right to come out victorious in a state election in Germany since the World War II when it won Brandenburg in September.
While the majority of Germans see the party in a negative light, in a Pew Research Center survey conducted from January 11 to March 20 is the highest recorded in the Center's eight years of conducting surveys on the topic.
At the same time, other German parties have seen their popularity wane, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social (SPD)'s popularity dropping from 67 percent in 2022 to 39 percent this year, according to the Pew Research Center's poll that surveyed 1,008 German adults.
