Elon Musk took his support for Germany's far-right party to the next level on Thursday, hosting a live chat with its leader Alice Weidel.
The 74-minute conversation ranged from energy policy, German bureaucracy, Adolf Hitler, Mars and the meaning of life.
The world's richest man unequivocally urged Germans to support the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the upcoming elections.
It is the tech billionaire's latest controversial foray into European politics.
There has been a huge buildup to this discussion as Elon Musk has faced accusations of meddling in early elections in Germany.
But the interview, conducted in English, was arguably an opportunity for the AfD to reach international audiences via Musk's X platform.
Knowing his close relationship with Donald Trump, Alice Weidel was keen to express her support for the US President-elect and his team.
She insisted that her party was “conservative” and “libertarian” but had been “negatively framed” by the mainstream media as extremist.
Sections of the AfD have been officially classified as far-right by German authorities.
A BBC News investigation Last year, links were discovered between some party figures and far-right networks, while one of the party's most prominent far-right figures, Björn Höcke, was fined last year for using a banned Nazi phrase – although he denied doing so intentionally.
During the conversation, Weidel declared that Hitler was in fact a “communist”, despite the anti-communism of the Nazi leader, who had invaded the Soviet Union.
“He was not conservative,” she said. “He wasn't a liberal. He was this socialist communist guy.”
She also described Hitler as an “anti-Semitic socialist.”
In other matters, she and Musk talked — and sometimes laughed — about Germany's notorious bureaucracy, its “crazy” abandonment of nuclear power, and the need for tax cuts, freedom of expression, and “wokeness.”
In a sometimes stilted, sometimes surprising conversation, a surreal moment came when Weidel asked Mr. Musk if he believed in God.
The response – for those who want to know – is that he is open to the idea because he seeks to “understand the universe as much as possible.”
Despite all expectations, this exchange was definitely not on many people's bingo card.
The Alternative for Germany party, which also opposes Berlin's arms aid to Ukraine, is in second place in Germany, and early federal elections are scheduled for February 23.
But it will not be able to take power because other parties will not work with it.
But that did not stop Elon Musk from hailing Weidel as “the prime candidate to run Germany.”
He justified his intervention by pointing to his large investments in the country — particularly Tesla's massive factory outside Berlin.
He also rejected the description of the Alternative for Germany party as far-right While previously labeling Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz is an “idiot.”
Scholz, whose chances of retaining the chancellorship appear remote, later insisted that he was “remaining calm” about Elon Musk's attacks.
