Musk-Backed AfD Defeated In German Elections
80% of Germans Reject Extreme-Right Party Linked to Tesla CEO
The Elon Musk-backed Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) decisively lost the German general election held on Sunday.
According to preliminary results via the BBC, the centre-right CDU/CSU led at 28.6%, the AfD came in second at 20.8%, followed by the centre-left SPD at 16.4%, the Greens at 11.6%, and the hard-left Die Linke party at 8.8%. All other parties scored beneath the 5% threshold to gain seats in the Bundestag (federal parliament).
The election was not a total defeat for the AfD. The 20.8% score is the best in the party’s history. And Sunday’s result is the first time an extreme-right party has achieved a second-place or higher result in German elections since the 1930s.
But the results also confirm that Musk’s favourite neo-fascist party will be marginalized for the foreseeable future. All other German parties have said they will not form a coalition with the extreme right. And German elections are typically held every four years, meaning the AfD is likely to be shut out of power for the duration of U.S. President’s Trump term. The next general election is also likely to take place after a settlement in the Ukraine War, meaning the AfD’s has almost certainly missed its chance to influence the outcome of the Ukraine War in Russia’s favour.
Worth The Brand Damage?
Perhaps even better news is that Musk’s attempt to tip the scales for AfD seems to have been entirely ineffectual. AfD was polling at around 20% before Musk’s endorsement, polled 20% after his endorsement, and ended up getting around 20% of the final vote. All of Musk’s posting, memeing, and manipulation of Twitter’s algorithm on behalf of the AfD seems to have done very little at all to boost the party’s electoral fortunes.
The consequences of Musk’s intervention in German politics on Tesla’s European sales, however, are likely to be severe. Musk’s promotion of the AfD is deeply resented within Germany’s political class, which views Musk as a dangerous foreign oligarch seeking to rekindle fascism in its blood-stained heartland. There was a time when Tesla was welcome on the European continent. No longer.
Tesla’s sales are already cratering in Germany, and the coming political backlash could extend to pressuring the automaker to give up its manufacturing facilities in Berlin - all at enormous shareholder expense.