Chancellor Olaf Scholz has doubled down on the country’s historical guilt and denounced Elon Musk’s endorsement of a rival party
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called US billionaire Elon Musk “disgusting” for backing a rival party in the EU country’s upcoming election and arguing that his fellow citizens should be proud of their culture and values.
The SpaceX and Tesla founder has endorsed the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of next month’s parliamentary vote. Appearing via video link at the party’s rally over the weekend, he urged Germans to reject the notion of generational guilt.
“I disagree completely with Elon Musk and what he is doing,” Scholz told reporters, in English, on the sidelines of a campaign event in Berlin on Tuesday evening.
“We are very happy that the United States liberated our country and helped us to become a democracy again,” he added. “And this is why I am so angry about Elon Musk intervening for the far right and Elon Musk also not acting adequately to this killing of so many Jews and other people in Europe done by Germans in the past. This is the historic responsibility we will continue to take in the future as well.”
“And this is really disgusting, and it is not good for the democratic development in the European Union,” the head of the Social Democrats concluded.
Scholz has governed Germany since 2021 in a ‘traffic light’ coalition with the Free Democrats and the Greens. The arrangement collapsed in November due to disagreements over economic policy, resulting in a snap election scheduled for February 23.
Musk has long criticized Scholz as a “fool” and endorsed AfD’s Alice Weidel for chancellor. Last Saturday, he tuned into the AfD rally in Halle, addressing the crowd of about 4,500 people about immigration and culture.
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Musk said. “I do not say it lightly when I think the future of civilization could hang on this election.”
He also argued that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great grandparents,” adding, “There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that.”
Modern Germany has embraced the notion of historical guilt for the Second World War and the Holocaust, with mainstream politicians insisting that any displays of national pride or nationalism amount to flirting with Nazism.
Scholz’s SPD and its allies have repeatedly tarred AfD as ‘Nazi’ while stopping short of outright banning the party as extremist.
