Elon Musk waded into Germany’s election on Friday, expressing his support for a far-right anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party that’s being monitored by the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, referring to the Alternative for Germany party.
The German government declined to comment at its regular press conference on Friday.
Europe’s most populous country is expected to vote on Feb. 23. On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left coalition government collapsed after he lost a confidence vote.
It is only the sixth time such a vote has been called in the country of 83 million people, Europe’s largest economy. It was required because, in post-World War II Germany, the constitution does not allow the Bundestag, or parliament, to dissolve itself.
Scholz expected to lose the vote, but had hoped that it would boost the fortunes of his center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), which had formed a fractious coalition government with the pro-market Free Democrats and the environmentalist Green Party.
Before calling the vote, Scholz accused Christian Lindner, his finance minister and Free Democrats member, of violating his trust after he publicly backed a different economic policy than the one they had agreed upon.
While mainstream parties have traditionally boycotted the AfD, meaning they will not form governing coalitions with the movement, the party is running second in opinion polls, according to Reuters, and might be able to thwart either a center-right or center-left majority.
Founded in April 2013 as a movement against the euro currency, the AfD has shifted its focus to combatting Islam and immigration and has grown in popularity at both local and national levels ever since, particularly in the former East Germany, which has lagged economically behind the west of the country.
In September, it became the first far-right party to win the most votes in a state election since the Nazi era, when it triumphed in Thuringia.
The win came despite a string of controversies linked to its leadership. The party is monitored by the country’s domestic intelligence agency for suspected extremism. Party leader Björne Höcke has twice been found guilty by a German court of purposefully employing Nazi rhetoric. He has appealed the rulings.
And in May the party’s top candidate, Maximilian Krah, was forced to withdraw from campaigning after he told an Italian newspaper that the SS, the Nazis’ main paramilitary force, were “not all criminals.” One of his aides was also charged with spying for China, and another candidate faced allegations of receiving bribes from a pro-Russian news portal.
Musk also voiced support for the AfD last year when he criticized the German government over its handling of illegal migration.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who has been tasked by President-elect Donald Trump with co-leading a commission called the Department of Government Efficiency, also called for the sacking of Italian judges who had questioned the legality of government measures to prevent irregular immigration.
He has also clashed with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this year after he labeled Britain a “tyrannical police state” and endorsed calls for a new election.
Andy Eckardt and Carlo Angerer contributed.
