Elon Musk Just Helped Germany's Far-Right AfD Win

John Johnston (0:00)

A German far-right political party's candidate singled out tech billionaire Elon Musk after a state election victory on Sunday. Elon is working full-time on X right now, trying to convince you that AfD is not far-right. But really, he's just trying to normalize the far-right.

SPEAKER_2 (0:17)

I'm for Putin and also for Trump.

SPEAKER_3 (0:20)

Elon Musk too.

SPEAKER_4 (0:21)

They'll bring us in the right direction.

John Johnston (0:23)

Hi everyone, JJ here. Welcome back to The Lounge. Well, the news has come through that a far-right party in Germany, the AfD, has won an important regional election and Elon Musk has helped to make that happen. Now, I've done videos about this before. His support for the party and he's out there gaslighting people as followers on his propaganda platform saying that it's not a far-right party. He's trying to normalize it. But if you've been paying attention over the past few years with the rise of this party and how they've been polling, it does actually come as no surprise. But here we have some headlines. Alarm across Europe after far-rights historic German victory. The vote in the Eastern Saxony and Holt region put the AFD on the bringer, forming the country's first far-right state government since World War II.

And we have this here from the Hill. German far-right party candidate thanks Musk after state election win. A German far-right political party candidate singled out tech billionaire Elon Musk after a state election victory on Sunday. Thank you Elon Musk for your support and for your clear and highly important perspective on the political developments of our time, including here in Germany. Ulrich Siegmund of the Alternative for Germany Party or AfD wrote Sunday on the social media platform X, Elon's platform. Siegmund's post was made in response to Musk writing Gut gemacht, which translates to good job in English. President Trump on Sunday also posted an image on his truth social live social platform showing the AfD is improving polling. And here it is the bar graph. You can see AfD in the blue there. And we have Elon Musk himself saying AfD is the only hope for Germany. So this was back on August 20th, so leading up to this election that's just happened. And here we have Tommy Robinson saying it's a dark day for the traitors of Germany. You know, I mean, inciting language and he's talking about people not voting for the AfD or people against the AfD.

So yes, spreading across Europe, if you have been paying attention, far right parties in Europe, not just in Germany, in France, Italy, and even in the UK, getting a boost out of this Tommy Robinson involved in that too.

So the rise of the far right in Germany. I do think it's partly at this time when living memory of World War II and the politics of the time, what happened there is sort of fading.

SPEAKER_5 (3:07)

The far right AfD party has sent shock waves across Germany and the world by surging to a landslide victory in the state election in Saxony-Anhalt. According to official preliminary results, the AfD more than doubled its last showing, winning a historic 43.8 percent.

John Johnston (3:25)

Okay, so this is just state regional, but it does have obviously implications for the federal or national government, you know, give them momentum. We should have learned more from history. Germans react to AfD wins. There's a few different people here. Let's have a look at this.

SPEAKER_6 (3:43)

We are taking the country back, he says.

John Johnston (4:02)

So this guy says it's regrettable that, well, a far right party has won.

I think we should have learned more from history. I'm reading this out, so I realize some people are listening to this rather than watching it. And this is the result we have now. We have to deal with it, but we'll see in the future what comes of it. Yes, I hope the momentum doesn't keep up. I mean, I'm not for this in the slightest. If you know the history of Germany and what happened before, I just think, really? Again? Is this happening again? How can this happen again? And I think it is because the living memory of it is fading, right?

This woman says, great, now all that's left is for them to win an absolute majority.

SPEAKER_6 (4:55)

The reporter asks, what would you hope to gain from that?

John Johnston (5:07)

She says that I can walk the streets alone at night as a woman without being afraid. Of course, the rise of far-right parties, the history of that, people are safe on the streets, right? I mean, come on, it's the saying about, I didn't realize the leopards were going to eat my face, said the person voting for the leopards eating face party. And that is the history of these things. Here's Elon Musk saying, that is correct. The far-right party, in quotes, is headed by a lesbian feminist with a wife from Sri Lanka. So this is kind of the cover. This is really interesting, I think, that the leader of the party, not in that region, the leader in that region was a charismatic 35-year-old white man who was talking the same rhetoric. And they used TikTok, social media was good at that. And it was successful from that point of view. So they'll be taking lessons from that, right? And it is very Trumpian. I'm not going to say they're MAGA light, they're MAGA plus, even more right wing than that. But they're supported by JD Vance, supported by Trump. It shows you where they stand as well.