Musk's German election 'meddling' slammed by chancellor candidate

Friedrich Merz, the conservative politician seeking to become Germany's next chancellor, lashed out at US tech billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday over his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in upcoming elections, reported dpa.

"I cannot recall, in the history of Western democracies, that there has been a comparable case of interference in the electoral campaign of a friendly country," the head of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told newspaper and magazine publisher Funke Mediengruppe.

Merz termed Musk's call for support for the AfD in the February 23 elections "meddlesome and overbearing."

In an opinion piece for Germany's conservative newspaper Die Welt, Musk described the AfD as "the last spark of hope for this country." The piece's publication prompted the resignation of a senior editor at the newspaper in protest.

Responding, Merz said: "Imagine for a brief moment, the – justified – reaction of Americans to a comparable article by a prominent German businessman in the New York Times backing an outsider in the US presidential election campaign."

Musk has emerged as a close advisor to President-elect Donald Trump. He has justified his intervention in German politics with the fact that he is chief executive of electric carmaker Tesla, which operates a huge production plant to the east of Berlin, and thus has a legitimate interest.