German President Announces Snap Election, Warns Against ‘Elon Musk’s Influence’
With Germany in grip of terror and migrant crime, AfD party surges in polls.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved the country’s parliament on Friday and announced a snap election on February 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed three years in office.
President Steinmeier, a left-wing Social Democrat, warned against ‘influence from Elon Musk’ and his social media platform X.
“Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved the 20th German parliament (…). This paves the way for new elections set for February 23,” German newspaper Merkur reported. “In addition to uplifting words, Steinmeier also aired criticism. He targeted Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and close confidant of Donald Trump, and his social media platform X.”
The traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people.
AfD is the only hope for Germany
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2024
In a short speech, the German president railed against “outside influence” in the upcoming election and recent “open and blatant” attempts to sway the voters on Musk-owned X. In recent posts, Musk came out in support of the Alternative for Germany(AfD), referring to it as the only party capable of “saving Germany.”
Germany’s state-owned DW TV reported the president’s move to dissolve the parliament:
Germany’s head of state started the countdown to a general election on Friday by dissolving the country’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.
“I have decided to dissolve the 20th German Bundestag to fix the date for an early election for February 23,” said President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, adding that “political stability in Germany is a precious asset.”
Steinmeier’s decision follows a request to do so after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence in the legislature on December 16. (…)
The parliamentary leaders of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the conservative opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had agreed on the date.
Recent opinion polls have Friedrich Merz’ CDU holding a lead of around 10 points over the SPD suggesting a tough bid for re-election for Scholz.
The populist, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been polling strongly and has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor.
German media, political establishment rattled by Musk’s endorsement
Musk’s recent posts in support of the AfD rattled Germany’s ruling establishment, with media outlets and political parties crying foul over ‘outside influence.’
After effectively running an anti-Trump campaign for years, the German weekly Der Spiegel last week complained: “The richest man in the world interferes in the general election campaign and praises the AfD.” Das Handelsblatt business daily lamented last week that Musk has been “interfering much too often” on the issues of domestic politics.
The AfD is gaining in polls after a Saudi immigrant drove a car into a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg and killed five, including a nine-year-old child. The migrant crime, too, is at an all-time high, with over 26,000 knife attacks recorded last year.
Only AfD can save Germany https://t.co/8TNZVEZGh5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2024
With Germany in grip of terror and migrant crime, AfD surges in polls
German president’s remarks come as the AfD party’s chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel, is leading in nationwide polls, emerging as the most favored pick for the country’s top political office.
“According to a survey by the opinion research institute INSA (…), 24 percent of Germans would vote for Weidel as chancellor,” German newspaper BILD reported Sunday. “For Weidel, this is (…) a four-point lead over [CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich] Merz.”
The current German chancellor, Scholz, is trailing with merely 15 percent of the overall vote.
AfD leader @Alice_Weidel explains why the AfD must win the upcoming elections in Germany.
They are taking place in February 2025. pic.twitter.com/JWIj7z1zmZ
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) December 22, 2024
[Disclaimer: Author is a member of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party; Excerpts from German media reports translated by the author]
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Comments
Lol. I guess Elon Musk is now the new boogeyman. I wonder if the surviving Koch brother happy or sad about that.
“The richest man in the world interferes in the general election campaign and praises the AfD.”
“It’s a private company, they can make any speech rules they want.”
Your (the left’s) mantra from 2017 to 2022, was it not?
Now suck on it, like the socket of a missing tooth.
The left is not one thing. No German leftist, and certainly not Der Spiegel, ever said “it’s a private company…”. They don’t believe in private companies’ freedom of speech, or indeed in anyone’s. Germany is where it’s illegal to display a swastika, and it subjects Facebook, X, etc. to censorship that would be unconstitutional here.
Yes; Elon Musk is the “problem.”
Never Islamofascism/Muslim supremacism; “green”/”climate change” fanaticism and its impoverishing and economy-destroying diktats; or, leftism/socialism/neo-communism.
It’s a white-run country and so attractive to the third world. Eventually this is self-correcting.
The way the existing parties keep trying to shut them out, I hope AfD gets an Absolute Majority.
A parliamentary system is just one of the ways Arrow’s theorem says all voting systems fail.
The squalling by the usual big government elites shows how much trouble they are in from the peasants not onboard with their dictates. The yelling about Musk is just a sideshow.
What bears reminding is that Germany is currently governed by the hard left — i.e., analogous to our looniest Democrats. Of course they are terrified.
When leftists accused our proposed border wall of being as reprehensible as the Berlin Wall, our response was that ours was to keep invaders out, whereas theirs was to keep citizens from escaping.
Perhaps Reagan was wrong about tearing that wall down. It freed a certain number of political victims, but it also let the bulk of the locusts out at large to harry the westerners.
Can you imagine a time in the 40’s that Germans would have stood for this?
It’s a universal call, in particular in Nazi Germany too
“…understanding the horror of the Reich is not aided by speculations about German history and the so-called German national character. The murder machine relies entirely upon the normality of jobholders and family-men. This normality consisted of decencies – care for the security of one’s family, compassion for animals …” – Vicki Hearne citing Arendt in _Bandit_ p.106
Do not trust virtue gone public wherever you see it. It turns easily into evil. That’s the general lesson.
Obama’s constant “that’s not who we are as Americans” refrain when pushing crap no one wants is an illustration of this. The current virtue signaling over illegal aliens is another.
Ghosts can be sticky things:
“In the newspapers there is insulting and stirring up hatred. Those irresponsible daubers!” — Joseph Goebbels
Or the Americans in 1776, 1863
I only said Nazis cause the Germans have become such wankers the last 70 years, they went from the evil empire to the most self hated Country in the World… not totally unwarranted, but it didn’t do for them what they really wanted
The “de-Nazification” went so far the men became geldings.
Question for Soros, Gates, Schwab, et al – How’s that ‘New World Order’ plan working out for you now?
Musk is a South African who lawfully immigrated to the USA and earned Naturalized Citizenship in the USA. This immigrant is definitely NOT the problem the German Gov’t should be looking for. Always amusing how big gov’t true believers want to stifle dissent and criticism lest their narrative be derailed and the voting public seek real reform. Gotta protect their grift and gravy train.
Germanys leftists are about to be B slapped. I hope they start expulsions at a high enough rate to those illegals, and legals within a a few years.
The AfD will be made illegal before the left will risk losing power.
There may not be time for that.
Rename Turkey Constantinople after we take it in 7 weeks following the final round of ICBMs, and build a wall from the Med to the Caspian.
Which ‘we’ are you referring to?
And, what has turkey to do with Germany? I’m confused.
It’s a major choke-point on the land route to Western Europe from the Middle East. The mountain passes around Vienna, Austria are another strategic bottleneck.
Why would you rename an entire country after a city?
Because the song is just so damn catchy it deserves an entire country.
What about ‘One Night in Bangkok’?
Let a million flowers bloom, baby.
60% of Winslow, Arizona’s civic identity comes from a single line in an Eagles song.
The brass ring is there if you lean out far enough to grab it.
Steinmeier officially takes the position that free speech is a danger to democracy.
The Germans have long taken that position. All of them, across the political spectrum. Even AfD would probably engage in censorship if it took office, just as the current government does.
Europe in general seems bent on committing suicide. Truly sad.
They are sure that the Americans will bail them out yet again. And the sad part is, we probably will.
… And is Elon Musk in the room with us right now, Herr Steinmeier?
Public comments on a public forum is not interference. Those clowns better worry more about the interference of the Muslim horde they let invade their country and less about people commenting online.
The “interference” is Musk’s resistance to censorship. He allows the average German to speak their mind, and the government cannot tolerate that.
Just like our Democrats.
It’s not Elon’s self-driving cars that are plowing into crowded marketplaces these days.
The Scholz government cowards walking out of the Bundestag session didn’t surprise anyone. Scholz is an utter fool, and his cabinet ministers are political eunuchs in the Forbidden City—completely ineffective and demented nitwits. I like the AfD leader, as she points out exactly what Scholz’ government could have done and failed to do. I despised M-Urkle, and Feldwebel “I know nothing!” Scholz is just more of the same.
German fascism crisis escalates as Elon Musk publishes a devastating 600-word editorial explaining why he supports Alternative für Deutschland
“They [Welt] 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 … Welt opinion editor Eva Marie Kogel has even resigned in protest – that is how serious this is.”
(Not behind his subscription wall.)
More deliciousness!
NEW POLL SHOWS MUSK EFFECT: AfD at new high, Free Democrats in collapse, Christian Democrats and Greens too weak for a coalition