Two weeks ago, Elon Musk stirred unusual hysteria about the prospects and future of German democracy by tweeting that “only the AfD can save Germany.” In the days since, Musk has repeated the sentiment, both because he believes it, but also because (one suspects) he likes to troll unreasonable ridiculous people. German biens pensants can’t help but lose their minds every time Musk tweets anything positive about the AfD, and so Musk will probably never stop poking them by doing precisely this.

There are two reasons that they react in such absurd and self-defeating ways:

1) Musk’s tweets confront our political establishment with an outside view of the insane, benighted and insular politics they have imposed on the Federal Republic. This is very uncomfortable for an elite who larp as adult, serious and farsighted people, while advancing some of the craziest policies the West has ever seen.

2) Our political establishment are correspondingly anxious that none of their subjects get wind of what people like Musk think about German political lunacy, lest these subjects awaken to the depressing fact that they are governed by crazy people with totally crazy ideas removed from all real-world considerations.

Some days ago, Musk submitted an editorial to Welt am Sonntag explaining his advocacy of the AfD at greater length. On the one hand, Welt editors surely felt compelled to print his newsworthy op-ed, not least because it looks like Mathias Döpfner, head of Axel Springer (which publishes Welt), solicited it . On the other hand, the prospect of printing Musk’s editorial inspired great anxiety among Welt staff, because nobody in legacy media is eager to let ordinary Germans in on the secret that many people outside of the Federal Republic find our entire political culture exceedingly stupid.

Yesterday morning, Welt finally figured out how to square the circle. They published Musk’s text, headed by a bolded warning that his words “call out for refutation,” and followed by one of the dumbest rebuttals the world has ever seen – penned by none other than Welt chief editor Jan Philipp Burgard. Imagine being so terrified of the political opinions of a wealthy American industrialist with libertarian leanings, that you feel you can only print them surrounded by screeching disclaimers and flimsy schoolmarm refutations. Even this was not enough to assuage the outrage of many Welt reporters at the prospect of releasing this dangerous editorial infohazard into the wild. Welt opinion editor Eva Marie Kogel has even resigned in protest – that is how serious this is.

So that you may judge for yourself the depths of Welt’s offence against German political propriety and representative democracy, I provide Musk’s editorial in full:

Germany is at a critical juncture. Its future teeters on the brink of economic and cultural collapse. As someone who has made significant investments in German industry and technology, I believe I have the right to speak candidly about its political direction. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country.

Here are the reasons:

Economic renewal: The German economy, once the engine of Europe, is now mired in bureaucracy and stifling regulations. The AfD understands that economic freedom is not only desirable but also necessary. Their approach to restricting government overreach, lowering taxes and deregulating the marketplace reflects the principles that have made Tesla and SpaceX successful. If Germany wants to regain its industrial strength, it needs a party that not only talks about growth but also takes political action to create an environment in which companies can flourish without heavy government intervention.

Immigration and national identity: Germany has opened its borders to a very large number of migrants. While this was done with humanitarian intent, it has created significant cultural and social tensions. The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy that prioritises integration and the preservation of German culture and security. This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalisation. A nation must preserve its core values and cultural heritage to remain strong and united.

Energy and independence: The energy policy pursued by the current coalition is not only economically costly, but also geopolitically naive. Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear energy and instead rely heavily on coal and imported gas, as well as volatile wind and solar power, without the battery storage necessary to maintain a stable power supply, has left the country vulnerable, especially to power outages. The AfD has a pragmatic approach to energy and is advocating a balanced approach. I hope they will consider the expansion of safe nuclear energy combined with battery storage to cushion major fluctuations in electricity consumption, because that is the obvious solution.

Political realism: The traditional parties have failed in Germany. Their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest and the erosion of national identity. The AfD, even if it is labelled as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are ignored by the establishment. It addresses current issues without the political correctness that often obscures the truth. The description of the AfD as far-right is clearly wrong when you consider that Alice Weidel, the leader of the party, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!

Innovation and the future: I have built businesses on the principle that innovation requires liberation from unnecessary constraints. The AfD’s vision is consistent with that ethos. It advocates educational reforms that promote critical thinking instead of indoctrination and supports the technology industries that represent the future of global economic leadership.

To those who condemn the AfD as extremist, I say: Don’t be fooled by the label. Look at its policies, economic plans and efforts to preserve culture. Germany needs a party that is not afraid to challenge the status quo and that is not mired in the politics of the past.

The AfD can save Germany from becoming a shadow of its former self. It can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just pipe dreams, but reality. Germany has become too comfortable in mediocrity – it is time for bold change, and the AfD is the only party that opens up this path.

I hope we can all agree that nothing Musk says here is very remarkable. He is a battery salesman who wants to sell Germany more batteries, and beyond his support for the AfD, his direct political observations would not be out of place coming from a centre-right CDU or CSU politician. This is an extremely moderate thing to freak out about.

This brings us to Burgard’s (or rather, Burgtard’s) rebuttal. Our valiant policeman of German political opinion at first confirms our initial impressions, conceding that “Musk is right when he sees our country in economic and cultural crisis,” and that “the failed migration, energy and social policies of the Merkel era and the traffic light coalition have put our prosperity at risk.” Indeed they have!

While Burgtard believes that “Musk’s diagnosis is correct,” he argues that “his approach … that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong.” I find it hard to see how that can possibly be true, and I mean this objectively. The CDU won’t be able to reverse “failed migration, energy and social policies” if they govern with the Greens or the Social Democrats. The only chance to address any of these problems lies with ditching the cordon sanitaire and forming a government with the AfD. All of this is so extremely simple, that there are really only two options for the honest editorialiser: One can argue that Germany is doing just great and that mass migration is fantastic and the energy transition is going swimmingly, or one can propose forming a government right-of-centre government with the AfD.

Burgtard continues to say Burgtarded things:

Demands for bureaucracy reduction, deregulation and tax cuts are not wrong just because they come from the AfD. But Musk seems to be overlooking the geopolitical framework in which the AfD wants to position Germany. According to its election manifesto, the AfD “considers it necessary” for Germany to leave the European Union. For Germany as an export nation, that would be a disaster. More than half of all German exports go to the European single market.

With economic welfare gains of around 83 billion Euros per year, Germany benefits from the single market like no other country. According to a survey by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW), 60 per cent of companies view the AfD’s position as a risk. The director of the IW, Michael Hüther, even describes the AfD as ‘poison for our economy.’

The AfD in a coalition with the CDU would be in no position to leave the European Union, so all of this is moot. Also too, though, the AfD are not opposed to the European single market, which is the sole source of all the benefits Burgtard adduces. The AfD are merely opposed to the bureaucratic behemoth that Brussels has become, which behemoth is actively strangling the German economy.

AfD co-chair Alice Weidel has been very clear about this, for example in her Bloomberg interview from a few weeks ago:

We don’t see that the European Union in its current state is an institution that is working well. What we need to have is free trade among the European countries, but we don’t need all the bureaucracy. … [W]e say, look, we don’t need a Commission that is actually destroying the foundation of our continent. What we need is free trade among the European countries …

[W]e think that the European treaties need to be reformed, so that every country within the European Union has the right, first of all, to have a veto against the Commission … And if a country wants to leave the European Union, why not by falling automatically into a free trade zone?

What the AfD actually propose, then, are EU-level reforms that will open to all member states the option of leaving the EU itself while remaining within the single market. Should these reforms be realised, the AfD would support leaving the EU while maintaining all of its prior EU-associated trade relationships. Now, you can agree with Weidel’s arguments or not, you can find her proposals realisable or reasonable or not, but what is very tiresome and also unsettling, is the outright refusal to address them at all, in favour of simply attacking strawman AfD policy proposals.

This is a pervasive problem: Establishment discourse always insists that the AfD is very bad, but when it comes time to explain why the AfD are very bad we get nothing but transparent lies and mischaracterisations about what the AfD stand for. Our betters want the AfD to be very bad in a way that it is not, and this raises profound questions about their real reasons for hating the AfD, and why they can never explain these reasons.

Burgtard continues:

Not only does the AfD question the European Union … but also the relationship with our most important transatlantic partner in trade and security policy. “The geopolitical and economic interests of the United States are increasingly diverging from those of Germany and other European states,” the AfD’s election manifesto literally states.

But the numbers tell a different story. In 2023, almost ten per cent of German exports went to the US, the highest figure in more than 20 years. Isn’t it in Germany’s interest that the US remains the most important customer for German exports? On the other hand, the US is one of Germany’s top three importers. Wouldn’t Elon Musk want many Teslas to continue rolling down Germany’s motorways in the future?

This is such a crayon argument, honestly it is insulting that Welt editors expect me to swallow it. Two things can be true at once: American and European interests can be diverging, which is something that even high-level advisers in Trump’s own circles acknowledge; and the United States can remain an important trade partner for Germany.

There follows the usual tiresome nonsense about alleged Russia and Chinese sympathies within the AfD, thinly supported and disingenuous as always. Then Burgtard finally gropes his way to the problem of mass migration:

In terms of migration policy, Musk sees the AfD as the solution. Germany is indeed struggling with out-of-control immigration. But the AfD is floundering with unrealistic plans for the remigration of millions of people.

That is yet another lie. In their draft programme, the AfD demand primarily the deportation of illegal and criminal migrants, along with incentives to encourage voluntary repatriation.

Then it gets more ridiculous:

The CDU under Friedrich Merz … has woken up to [the migration] problem and wants to abandon Merkel’s uncontrolled do-gooder policy.

Sometimes you read things that are so ridiculous you don’t know whether to laugh or hit yourself in the face. Is a leading centre-right German newspaper really and truly asking me to believe the CDU has suddenly “woken up” to the very problem that its leading lights created and that many of its members still enthusiastically deny even exists? Is that possible?

To this end, the CDU has significantly tightened its stance, calling for push-backs at the border and faster deportations of rejected asylum seekers. Such measures show that there are alternatives to the far-right positions of the AfD.

Aside from the fact that the CDU migration programme now hardly differs from the AfD migration programme, except insofar as it reads like it was written for children with very limited attention span and reading comprehension, the CDU again will have significant problems doing any of this in a coalition with left parties.

To the extent that Musk considers the classification of the AfD as far-right to be “clearly wrong,” he is making a serious mistake. The AfD is not just Alice Weidel, but also Björn Höcke. Courts have said that it is legal to call Höcke a right-wing extremist. Höcke has also been convicted several times for using a forbidden Nazi slogan. “Alles für Deutschland!” – sounds like Hitler!

Specifically, one is allowed to call Björn Höcke a “fascist,” since a court ruled that calling Höcke a “fascist” falls within the bounds of freedom of expression. You will note that that does not remotely support the case that Björn Höcke is a fascist. Otherwise, Höcke repeated that obscure SA slogan unknowingly, as major German media have also done. These cheap Nazi smears are another dishonest tactic via which establishment mouthpieces hope to reject the AfD as a party without ever having to explain what, precisely, is wrong with them. Untold hundreds of activists in party apron organisations and NGOs have spent years scouring the speeches and publications of AfD politicians in search of minimally plausible parallels to big Nazi villains.

The real problem with the AfD is not that they are “right-wing extremists” or that they advocate for crazy Nazi self-destructive economic policies. Not even their qualified Euroscepticism can explain this hysteria. No, the real problem with the AfD is that their growing parliamentary representation is extremely inconvenient for the traditional German party ecosystem. The larger they get, the harder it becomes for the establishment parties to form majority coalitions, and the more the CDU will be forced to govern with leftist parties, who will make it impossible for them to deliver to their voters.

Right now, nobody has a solution to this problem, beyond an unending programme of freaking out about “the extreme right” in the weak hope of driving AfD supporters back into the arms of the Christian Democrats.

“The criticism of US billionaire Musk’s editorial continues unabated,” screams tagesschau (via the Deutsche Presse-Agentur):

CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz describes the commentary as “invasive and presumptuous” …

SPD co-chair Saskia Esken said that our democracy is well-fortified and cannot be bought. “Anyone who tries to influence our election from the outside, anyone who supports an anti-democratic, inhuman party like the AfD, be it state-organised influence from Russia or the concentrated power of money and media from Elon Musk and his billionaire friends … must expect our fierce resistance,” she added …

Andreas Audretsch, [Green Party] campaign director, said tech billionaires or Chinese state-owned companies have the opportunity “to undermine our democratic discourse with their platforms and a lot of money.” He said that Musk was trying to do this “hand in hand with the right-wing extremists in the AfD.” This, he said, was “a danger for our democracy and freedom of expression in our country.”