Musk justifies call to vote for Germany's far-right AfD

US billionaire Elon Musk has renewed his call to Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the forthcoming elections, reported dpa.

"The Alternative for Germany is the last spark of hope for this country," Musk writes in a guest article for the Sunday edition of Die Welt newspaper, seen in advance by dpa.

Musk had last week just briefly commented on the online service X, which he owns, "Only the AfD can save Germany."

In his article Musk explains that he believes the AfD would take the right positions on the issues of economic recovery, energy supply and control of migration. He also said that he sees the AfD as committed to what he called "political realism."

He writes that the "portrayal of the AfD as far right is clearly false when you consider that Alice Weidel, the leader of the party, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you?"

Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is monitoring the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist organization.

Jan Philipp Burgard, the future editor-in-chief of Die Welt Group, contradicted the billionaire's statements in the newspaper.

"Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his approach to therapy, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong," he wrote. Both articles – Musk's and Burgard's – are placed directly next to each other in the printed newspaper.

The Musk article has caused trouble within the newspaper's editorial team. The opinion editor of the paper posted on X that she had "submitted [her] resignation after proofreading" as a consequence of the Musk text.

Other Die Welt journalists also publicly posted their displeasure on X.

Media reports suggest the publication of Musk's guest article triggered a fierce controversy within the editorial team even before Christmas Eve.

The publisher of Die Welt, Axel Springer, gave dpa a joint statement from Ulf Poschardt, the current editor-in-chief of Die Welt Group, and his successor Burgard. "The current discussion about the text by Elon Musk is very revealing," the statement says. "Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression."

Musk is considered a close adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump. The tech billionaire, who as Tesla boss is one of the biggest employers in the German state of Brandenburg surrounding Berlin, has also been interfering in British politics, pledging his support to the right-wing populist British party, Reform UK.

With the federal election in Germany due to take place on February 23, the AfD is in second place in the polls with around 19%, behind the conservative CDU/CSU with more than 30%.

All parties currently represented in the Bundestag have ruled out any cooperation with the AfD.