Elon Musk is trying to break the quarantine in Germany through the far-right Alternative for Germany party

Elon Musk’s interest is not limited to German politics. He is trying to break the political siege that has kept the country’s most prominent far-right party out of government even as it gains strength with voters.

On Thursday, Mr. Musk hosted a live interview in English with Alice Weidel. She is the chancellor candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known as the AfD, in the country’s early elections scheduled for February 23. Even before the event, which was held on X, the social media platform used by Mr. Merkel. Musk says the matter has raised fears and threats of legal consequences among the political class in Germany.

This is largely because Mr. Musk offers the AfD a level of publicity and legitimacy that has long been denied him in German public life.

He made this trend clear in the interview, and repeated his warning to Germans that only the AfD could bring about the change their country needs.

A vote for the AfD “is ​​simply a sensible move,” Mr. Musk said, after about a half-hour of conversation that remained largely on energy policy and immigration. “And I think Alice Weidel is a very sensible person, and I hope people can figure that out just from this conversation. Nothing outrageous was suggested, just common sense.”

The Alternative for Germany party rose to second place in German national opinion polls, with the support of about a fifth of voters. It has gained support through an unflinching anti-establishment campaign, which attacks the millions of immigrants and refugees who have entered the country over the past decade from the Middle East and Ukraine.

Parties with similar messages related to immigration elsewhere in Europe, such as Italy’s Brotherhood Party and Austria’s Freedom Party, have risen to federal power. But in Germany, still haunted by its Nazi past, no other party will work with the AfD. Its candidates They complain that they are receiving much less airtime of other candidates on political talk shows in the country.

Meanwhile, the AfD has made forays into language and actions that German leaders consider extreme. The party was forced to expel its members for using racist and anti-Semitic language. One of its leaders has been repeatedly punished by German courts for chanting banned Nazi slogans.

The party is subject to local intelligence surveillance. Three of its branches in the states, as well as its entire youth wing, have been classified as right-wing extremists, a designation given by the intelligence services after intense surveillance. More than 100 employees working for AfD MPs have also been confirmed to be right-wing extremists, according to a report. Investigation by the Public Broadcasting Corporation.

In a 2016 speechAs the AfD gains more strength ahead of the federal elections, former Chancellor Angela Merkel urged all German parties to unite against the AfD. It was, she saidIt’s not just a problem for her Conservative party, it’s “a challenge to all of us gathered in this house.”

The anti-AfD rally has not broken up since then. Not after the party surged in the polls and scored victories in major state elections last year, and not after it tried to present a more moderate face as its chancellor candidate: Ms. Weidel, a former investment banker who lives with the same Sri Lankan family. -Sexual partners and their children in Switzerland.

Enter Mr. Musk, who controls a powerful media platform increasingly filled with right-wing influencers. He became a confidant of President-elect Donald J. Trump, and in his online posts began promoting far-right candidates and parties across Europe.

In December, Mr. Musk reposted a video of Naomi Seibt, the 24-year-old conservative German social media star who has gained a large following on X and YouTube, through her own page. Harsh criticism of climate scientists And efforts to combat global warming. She is also close to the Alternative for Germany party, and appears to have helped convince Musk to support the party.

“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Mr. Musk wrote in his post, which included one of her videos.

Ms. Weidel welcomed the support. “You’re absolutely right, @elonmusk!” I wrote a response.

Mr. Musk has since He wrote an opinion article In the German newspaper Die Welt, he explained his support for the party, which he described as “the last spark of hope” for Germany. In it, the AfD was portrayed not as an extremist, but as a reasonable alternative to a calcified political establishment.

“Portraiting the AfD as far-right is clearly wrong considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a gay partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on!” books.

Mr. Musk, and many X users, are fascinated by European right-wing political parties such as the AfD. But the party’s positions differ in many ways from Mr. Musk’s personal and business views, and his role as an adviser to Mr. Trump.

The AfD did He fought famously Against building a factory in Germany for Tesla, the electric car company also run by Mr. Musk. In an interview with the American Conservative newspaper this week, Ms. Weidel praised Mr. Trump, but noted that Germans had become “slaves” of the United States, including by helping America in wars over the past 30 years.

In their conversation with X Spaces on Thursday, Mr Musk mentioned the construction of the factory, but did not mention opposition to the AfD. Instead, he and Ms. Weidel discussed it as an example of Germany’s bureaucratic permitting process, which Mr. Musk said resulted in Tesla needing to obtain a 25,000-page permit that had to be printed and stamped on each page.

Mr. Musk focused the first half of their conversation on politics, including Germany’s decision to close nuclear plants, which he and Ms. Weidel criticized. Ms. Weidel said the closures resulted from a misguided bet on solar and wind power. Musk graciously interjected. “Obviously I’m a big fan of solar energy,” he said.

The tone and content of the conversation seemed designed to support Mr. Musk’s claim that Ms. Weidel and the AfD are “reasonable,” as he has said several times.

At one point, Mr. Musk asked Ms. Weidel to directly address concerns that the AfD was “in some way linked to Nazism.” Her answer was narrow. She pointed to the economy: She said that the Nazis raised taxes and centrally planned the German economy, while the Alternative for Germany party leaned toward libertarianism. “We were framed wrongly,” she said.

The European Commission said it would examine Mr Musk’s interference in European politics given his enormous power through his ownership of X and his close ties, however impermanent, to the next US president.

Europe’s centre-left political parties, including Germany’s Social Democratic Party, jointly released her statement He urged Brussels to use “all available legal means” to protect democracy from disinformation and foreign interference on social media.

German leaders took turns criticizing Mr. Musk and tried to ignore him. In an interview this week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected the billionaire’s efforts to influence German voters. “I don’t believe I can flirt with Mr. Musk,” he said. He added in English that when dealing with social media posts, his rule is “don’t feed the troll.”

German voters also seem unmoved, at least for now. Three quarters of respondents In a poll conducted by a German radio station, he said it was inappropriate for Mr. Musk to comment on German politics.

But the same poll showed that a majority of respondents believed Mr Musk’s efforts would help the AfD in the election.

Stephen Erlanger and Christopher F. Schwetz Contributed to reports.