Musk congratulates German populist party for doubling vote share after de-banking, disarmament, surveillance by authorities

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has spent years surveilling members of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany — often abbreviated AFD for its German name, Alternative für Deutschland — over concerns about "extremism" — a politically charged initiative that regional courts repeatedly supported. An administrative court disarmed party members last year, barring them from owning firearms. Leftist activists succeeded in having the party de-banked in July. Hundreds of parliamentarians pushed a motion in January seeking to ban the party outright.

Despite these and other obstacles set before it by the powers that be, the AFD — a party founded in 2013 by free-market economists keen to strengthen German sovereignty — came in second place in the nation's elections Sunday, doubling the vote share it previously won in 2021.

The AFD secured 152 seats in the German parliament, which positions it to block constitutional changes in concert with the Left party as well as to potentially eclipse Friedrich Merz's nominally conservative Christian Democratic Union in the next election. Nevertheless, establishmentarians have tried downplaying the populist party's gains — especially because of Elon Musk's public support for the party.

'Traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people.'

The anti-Trump group MeidasTouch tweeted, "MUSK LOSES BIG IN GERMANY," adding, "Germany's CDU/CSU wins big, while the far-right AfD underperforms in second — despite backing from Elon Musk and J.D. Vance."

The socialist magazine Mother Jones ran a piece titled "Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed," which framed the result as a loss despite acknowledging toward the end that "the results are still an unprecedented success for AfD, whose popularity has grown over the years at the same time as they have succeeded in pushing other German politicians further right."

Musk emphasized ahead of the election that "only AfD can save Germany," stressing that the "traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people." The tech magnate also hosted the party's leader, Alice Weidel, in a 75-minute conversation on X, giving her a boost in early January.

Notwithstanding the liberal spin in the wake of the election, AFD secured 20.8% of the vote, crushing outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz's liberal Social Democratic Party, which nabbed only 16.4% of the vote.

Merz's CDU and its sister party together received 28.6% of the vote — enough for first place but not enough to avoid exposure to tactical AFD challenges in the next national election. In the meantime, however, the establishment parties have agreed on a "firewall" to keep the AFD out of the ruling coalition that forms in the days and weeks to come.

Musk congratulated Weidel on her party's performance, noting that AFD "will be the majority party by the next election."

President Donald Trump congratulated the CDU, noting on Truth Social, "LOOKS LIKE THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN GERMANY HAS WON THE VERY BIG AND HIGHLY ANTICIPATED ELECTION. MUCH LIKE THE USA, THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY GOT TIRED OF THE NO COMMON SENSE AGENDA, ESPECIALLY ON ENERGY AND IMMIGRATION, THAT HAS PREVAILED FOR SO MANY YEARS."

While not as aggressive as the AFD, Merz's CDU has indicated that it will crack down on unchecked migration, curb regulations, and seek changes to spur economic growth, reported the New York Times.

However, whereas AFD has advocated for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine and criticized continued aid to the embattled nation, Merz has staked out a hawkish position, reportedly stating that he would not accept a deal struck between the U.S. and Russia "over the heads of the Europeans, over the heads of Ukraine," and promising to provide long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv.

"My top priority, for me, will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can gradually achieve real independence from the U.S.A.," Merz said ahead of the election. "I would never have thought I'd be saying something like this on TV, but after last week's comments from Donald Trump, its clear that this administration is largely indifferent to Europe's fate, or at least to this part of it."

This so-called "independence" will likely cost Germany a pretty penny, at least if it expects to fill America's shoes in the way of financer. Extra to approving hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine along with over $65 billion in military assistance, the U.S. has paid the most for defense in NATO.

Merz has also characterized Trump as an "admirer of autocratic systems," suggesting that his recent criticism of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy amounted to the adoption of Kremlin rhetoric.

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