Follow real-time updates about the Trump administration here.
Germany’s tough alternative may not have done what leaders hoped for Sunday’s election, but its groundbreaking performance is enough to get Elon Musk’s congratulations call.
The party’s prime minister candidate Alice Weidel told reporters Monday morning that her German abbreviation AFD is famous and she has already slept through Mr. Musk’s phone call, the richest person in the world and Trump. The president’s top adviser. She said when she looked at the phone in the morning after her party won 20.8% of the votes, she didn’t get a call from the United States, which turned out to be from Mr. Musk, who said, “Congratulations to me in person.”
A few hours later, Mr. Musk made this publicly again, when he republished the congratulations notes by Hungarian authoritarian leader Victor Orban on X and added a note, It reads: “Indeed, congratulations to @alice_weidel! At this rate of growth, @AFD will be the majority party for the next election.”
The AFD ranked second in Germany’s national election with more than 20% of the vote, nearly doubled its share in 2021 and is a record for any far-right party since the end of World War II. But the first Christian Democrat and presumed future Prime Minister Friedrich Merz ruled out a coalition with the AFD, so Ms. Weidel and her party will continue to be eliminated.
Part of the AFD’s activities aimed at curbing irregular immigration, increasing deportation and improving the economy, have been classified as extremism by German domestic intelligence. But Vice President JD Vance met Ms. Wadel in Munich earlier this month, shocking European leaders, who told them mainstream parties should not rule out extreme right factions like the AFD.
Mr. Musk later had a 75-minute video conversation with Ms. Weidel in December on his publicly acknowledged AFD’s X, his social media platform. Promoting the party by calling a raucous party meeting held by Halle, he encouraged the crowd to try to convince their neighbors, friends and family to vote for the AFD.
Public interventions by foreign nationalities and White House advisers were very unusual in the German election, which made it even more amazing when Mr Musk told AFD supporters that Germany was “too focused on the guilt of the past”.
But Mr Musk’s push seems to have no significant impact on the party’s already high voting numbers. Tino Chrupalla, a party co-leader with Ms. Weidel, admitted ahead of the election that Mr. Musk may not be the attraction of potential AFD voters, but he said his Recognition has led to the interest and donations of other business leaders.
