Fuss about Elon Musk’s guest article in WamS

Trouble in the editorial team and resignations in protest: Why a guest article by Elon Musk in “Welt am Sonntag” has the media world discussing.

The Tesla boss and owner of Platform X has taken a liking to the AfD. He thinks the party is not right-wing extremist – and has a very unusual argument for this. While last week he had made a brief statement on the online service The AfD would represent the right positions on the topics of economic recovery, energy supply and migration control.

Musk comments on Alice Weidel’s partner

He also sees the AfD as committed to “political realism”. Musk, who is known for provocative, high-frequency postings on his platform and who, among other things, called Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) a “fool,” continues to write in the newspaper: “The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly wrong, if you think about it that Alice Weidel, the party’s chairwoman, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you?”

Weidel quoted an excerpt from Musk’s post on This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalization.” The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution observes the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case.

Discontent in the editorial team because of Musk’s contribution

In the newspaper, the future editor-in-chief of the “Welt” group, Jan Philipp Burgard, contradicted the billionaire’s statements: “Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong.” Both articles – that of Musk and Burgard’s – were placed right next to each other in the printed newspaper.

The Musk contribution caused anger within the editorial team. The head of the opinion department of “Welt” and “WamS” of the Welt newspaper group posted on Other world journalists also posted their displeasure publicly on X.

According to media reports, the printing of Musk’s guest article sparked a heated controversy within the editorial team before Christmas Eve. The editorial committee had already warned against publication back then, writes the industry service “Medieninsider”, and “Spiegel” reports on further disputes in the final editorial conference on Friday.

When asked by the German Press Agency about the genesis of the article and how to deal with internal criticism, the media group Axel Springer responded with a joint statement from the current “Welt” group editor-in-chief Ulf Poschardt and his successor Burgard: “The current discussion about Elon Musk’s text is very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.”

This includes dealing with polarizing positions and classifying them journalistically. “This will continue to determine the compass of the “world” in the future. We will develop “Die Welt” even more decisively as a forum for such debates.”

Musk has been getting involved for a long time

The chairman of the German Journalists Association (DJV), Mika Beuster, called on editorial teams not to allow themselves to be exploited in the federal election campaign and to handle guest contributions “extremely carefully”. “German media must not allow themselves to be misused as a mouthpiece for autocrats and their friends,” said Beuster.

The Green Party’s campaign manager, Andreas Audretsch, said: “Tech billionaires like Elon Musk or Chinese state-owned companies have the opportunity to undermine our democratic discourse with their platforms and a lot of money.” This is a danger to democracy and freedom of expression.

Musk is considered a close advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump and was commissioned by him to work with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on a newly created committee called DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”) to develop proposals for cutting government spending. The tech billionaire, who as Tesla boss is one of the largest employers in Brandenburg, has also been interfering in British politics for months. He has assured the right-wing populist British party Reform UK of his support.

Ahead of the planned federal election on February 23rd, the AfD is in second place in surveys with around 19 percent, behind the Union with more than 30 percent. All parties represented in the Bundestag rule out cooperation with the far-right party.

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