Elon Musk has endorsed the AfD in a guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag, prompting its opinion editor to resign in protest. The Times has more.
In the article the tech billionaire explained why he had posted on the social media platform X last week that “only the AfD can save Germany”.
He wrote: “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? Come on!”
Weidel, 45, has served as joint leader of her party since June 2022. She is in a civil partnership with Sarah Bossard, a film producer who lives in Switzerland and is originally from Sri Lanka. Weidel has extensively criticised Germany’s immigration policies and despite her own sexuality has stated her opposition to same-sex marriage in favour of protecting the “traditional family”.
Shortly after the opinion piece was published, Eva Marie Kogel, the editor of the paper’s opinion section, wrote that she had submitted her resignation.
In a post on X, which is owned by Musk, she said she had “always enjoyed heading the opinion department” at the newspaper. “Today a text by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. Yesterday I submitted my resignation after printing.”
Jan Philipp Burgard, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief designate, and Ulf Poschardt, the incoming publisher, appeared to criticise the resignation in a joint statement. “Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression. This includes dealing with polarising positions and classifying them journalistically,” the pair told Reuters.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: In the Telegraph, Katja Hoyer says the publication of the op ed in such a respectable, mainstream publication has broken a taboo, bringing support for the AfD within the Overton Window.
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