Musk, who during the fall election campaign had a similar conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump, expressed hope that the interview with Alice Weidel would give listeners an image of her as “reasonable”.
– Nothing outrageous has been proposed, just common sense, said the tech billionaire.
Musk and Weidel agreed that Germany’s taxes are too high, that there is too much immigration and that it was a mistake for the country to shut down nuclear power plants.
During the call, Musk also expressed his support for the AfD and urged Germans to vote for the party in the upcoming election on February 23 – something that has quickly sparked debate across Europe.
Has been criticized
French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized it as support for a “new international reactionary movement”, while Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has questioned the meddling of an individual with so much influence in the internal affairs of other countries.
– The conversation draws so much attention because the AfD is not just any party. It is one of the most radical of its kind and is monitored by German security services as parts of the party have been classified as right-wing extremists, says SVT’s European correspondent Christoffer Wendick.
What is Musk’s purpose with this?
– He wants to wash away the extremist label, and for some Germans also the Nazi label, which this party is associated with, says Wendick.
See more of the correspondent’s analysis in the clip above.