Elon Musk praises far-Right AfD in Germany election shock – and predicts party would win the next German elections in 2029

By VANESSA ALLEN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Published: 03:52 GMT, 25 February 2025 | Updated: 03:58 GMT, 25 February 2025

Elon Musk congratulated the hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party yesterday and predicted it would win the next German elections in 2029.

The tech billionaire phoned AfD leader Alice Weidel after her party came second in federal elections, winning more than 20 percent of the vote to become the main opposition party.

The unprecedented result, which saw AfD poll second after the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is the first time a hard-Right party has become the main opposition in post-war history.

Miss Weidel said she believed the party could ‘overtake the CDU within the next few years for the next election… to become the strongest force’ in Germany.

Mr Musk, who previously addressed AfD supporters and said the party was ‘the best hope for the future of Germany’, said he believed the party could win power in 2029.

He wrote on X: ‘Congratulations Alice Weidel! At this rate of growth, AfD will be the majority party by the next election.’

Miss Weidel said she had woken up yesterday to find she had missed a call from Mr Musk, and said he had ‘personally congratulated me’.

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), gestures as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk appears on screen during a central election campaign event of the AfD in Halle (Saale), Germany on January 25

US Vice President JD Vance met with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel on the sidelines of a recent conference in Germany

The leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, waves a German flag at the party’s headquarters on Sunday. The party have taken 20 per cent which is the strongest showing for a far-right party in Germany’s post war era

Friedrich Merz from the Christian Democratic Union party

Current Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Meanwhile, the governing centre-left SPD has slumped to third place in what looks set to be a disastrous result for Scholz’s party

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The centre-Right CDU won Sunday’s election with 28.6 percent of the vote, followed by the AfD on 20.8 percent.

The centre-Left SPD led by German chancellor Olaf Scholz secured just 16 percent, the worst result in its history.

The AfD won the vote in much of the former East Germany and Miss Weidel said the result showed it was time for other parties to drop their so-called firewall against cooperation with the party.

She said: ‘They cannot exclude millions of voters. That is undemocratic. The firewall must go – no functioning democracy has a firewall.’

Mr Musk and US vice-president JD Vance have both spoken out against the firewall, which they have branded ‘anti-democratic’.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz is expected to form a coalition with the SPD. He said he was ‘extremely concerned’ by the results in the east of the country.

He said the result there was ‘the final warning signal to the political parties of the democratic centre in Germany to find common ground’.

Hungary’s hard-Right, pro-Putin leader Viktor Orban also congratulated Miss Weidel.

He wrote on X: ‘The people of Germany voted for change in immense numbers. I want to congratulate Alice Weidel on doubling AfD’s share of the votes. Good luck and God bless Germany!’

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Elon Musk praises far-Right AfD in Germany election shock – and predicts party would win the next German elections in 2029

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