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5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE AFD, ELON MUSK’S NEW FRIENDS ON THE
GERMAN FAR RIGHT  
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Mehdi Hasan
December 23, 2024
Zeteo
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_ First, Elon Musk helped buy the U.S. presidential elections. Now,
he is interfering in Germany's elections, by supporting the
ultra-rightist party AfD, Alternative for Germany; in German:
Alternative für Deutschland. Germany and Europe is protesting. _

Anger in Germany and Europe over Elon Musk's support for far-right
AfD party., France24

 

We are in a dangerous moment for democracy.

Again.

Over the past few days, Elon Musk – aka the richest man in the
world, aka the owner of Twitter, aka the soon-to-be co-head of DOGE,
aka the US shadow president
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waiting – has repeatedly endorsed Germany’s far-right party, the
AfD (in English: Alternative for Germany; in German: _Alternative
für Deutschland_).

“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk tweeted
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208 million followers. “AfD is the only hope for Germany,”
he added [[link removed]] on
Saturday. “Only AfD can save Germany,” he repeated
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between, he also tweeted
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policies are identical to those of the US Democratic Party when Obama
took office!”

When I pointed out
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that this was a “demonstrable lie,” an army of Musk fanboys
arrived in my feed to insist that I, in fact, _demonstrate_ the lie.

So here we go. To pretend the AfD is a mainstream political party,
similar to the US Democrats, is absurd. The AfD may have begun in
2013, barely a decade ago, as an anti-euro party
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on the European Union and economic and monetary issues, but it quickly
morphed into an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party
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with cranks, extremists, and Nazi sympathizers
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Don’t take my word for it. Jörg Meuthen, who was the leader of the
AfD from 2015 to 2022, quit the party after he was unable to expel
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member who described himself as the “friendly face” of Nazism.
“I could tell you a large number of stories about these people,”
Meuthen told
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Times_ over the summer. “I would never elect one of these guys.
Never!”

Bernd Lucke, a co-founder and former chair of the AfD who quit the
party in 2015, believes
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AfD contains officials “whose loyalty to the [German] constitution
can be doubted.”

But you don’t just have to take their word for it, either.

Consider the shocking events of just 2024 alone – which Elon Musk,
of course, would like you to ignore.

 

1. SECRET FAR-RIGHT MEETING

In January, it emerged that AfD officials had attended a secret
meeting with far-right and neo-Nazi influencers, at which they
discussed the forced deportation of millions of people – including
German citizens! Thousands of Germans took to the streets
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protest, some carrying banners which included: “Nazis, no thank
you.”

_“The meeting took place in a hotel outside the east German city of
Potsdam on 25 Nov, but did not come to light until 10 Jan…A central
focus was a presentation by Martin Sellner, the Austrian leader of the
ethno-nationalist Identitarian movement, about… carrying out mass
deportation.” _–_ The Guardian
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2. ‘EXTREMIST MOVEMENT’

In February, a German court ruled that the AfD’s youth wing could be
considered an “extremist movement.”

_“A German regional court ruled Tuesday that the youth faction of
the country’s biggest anti-immigrant nationalist party could be
considered an ‘extremist movement’ - marking the first such
classification of a political party since the Nazis. The Junge
Alternative, an offshoot of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) whose
members are as young as 14 years old, has called immigrants
‘parasites’ and ‘criminals.’”_ – Semafor
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3. COURT-APPROVED SURVEILLANCE

In May, a German court signed off on the BfV, the German equivalent of
the FBI, putting the AfD under surveillance for “suspected”
extremism.

_“Germany’s domestic intelligence agency was justified in putting
the far-right Alternative for Germany under observation for suspected
extremism, a court ruled Monday, rejecting an appeal from the
opposition party.”_ – Associated Press
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4. WAFFEN-SS CONTROVERSY

Also in May, a top AfD politician suggested that members of the Nazi
Waffen-SS were not all “criminals,” prompting even France’s
far-right leader Marine Le Pen to cut ties
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the AfD.

_“A top far-right German politician says he will pull back from
campaigning for the upcoming EU elections - although he will remain
his party's lead candidate. [...] AfD's Maximilian Krah told
journalists that SS members weren’t automatically ‘criminals.’_

_‘It depends. You have to assess blame individually. At the end of
the war there were almost a million SS. Günter Grass was also in the
Waffen SS,’ he told La Repubblica and the Financial Times, referring
to the German novelist who wrote The Tin Drum._

_‘Before I declare someone a criminal, I want to know what he
did.’”_ – BBC [[link removed]]

 

5. NAZI SLOGANS

In July, AfD senior leader Björn Höcke – who would later lead the
AfD to its first-ever, first-place finish
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a state election in Thuringia in November – was found guilty of
using a Nazi slogan for a _second_ time. This is the same Höcke
who once condemned
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Holocaust memorial.

_“Björn Höcke… has been found guilty of using a Nazi slogan for
the second time. A court in Halle, in eastern Germany, ruled Monday
that the politician must pay a fine of €16,900 for using the first
two words of the slogan ‘Everything for Germany!’ at an AfD event
in December, then encouraging the crowd to complete the phrase. Using
this phrase in political speeches is prohibited in Germany as it was
used by Adolf Hitler’s SA storm troopers… Höcke is expected to
appeal the verdict… In May, Höcke was fined €13,000 for closing a
2021 campaign speech with the same slogan. His lawyers also appealed
that ruling.”_ - Politico
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In conclusion, Elon Musk is publicly and proudly supporting a foreign
far-right party suspected of extremism by Germany’s own courts and
intelligence officials; a party too extreme even for Marine Le Pen; a
party filled with people who meet with, defend, and quote Nazis.

How is any of that… okay?

_[MEHDI HASAN is the Founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Zeteo.]_

* Elon Musk
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* Fascism
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* Germany
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* Afd
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* German elections
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* Alternative for Germany
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* Alternative für Deutschland
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* Right-wing politics
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* Europe
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* European Union
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* far right
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* Nazis
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* nazism
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