What do Elon Musk and AfD leader Alice Weidel have in common? | Berlin Briefing Podcast

X owner Elon Musk hosted a livestreamed talk with the co-leader and chancellor candidate of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), Alice Weidel, on his social media platform on January 9. Although Musk billed Weidel as the ‘leading candidate to run Germany’, the AfD is polling second place ahead of early elections set for February 23, somewhere in the region of 20%, and is unlikely to get into government as all other parties have ruled out cooperating with a party that’s being investigated as far-right extremist.

In this episode of Berlin Briefing, DW’s Nina Haase and Michaela Küfner break down the content of the chat together with American journalist Kate Conger, co-author of “Character Limit – How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter”. From energy, immigration, and Israel, Ukraine and Nazi Germany, to free speech and Musk’s stated desire to colonize Mars – the conversation was peppered with misinformation and highly controversial statements (“Hitler was a communist”), and its many topics are analyzed by the team to build a picture of what was in it for the tech billionaire and for the co-leader of Germany’s far-right party.

Further information:

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
05:47 Energy and bureaucracy
08:25 Migration, theft in California
10:33 Free speech – European rules
16:23 How much free speech is there on X?
18:08 Why Musk chose the AfD
21:02: Weidel: “Hitler was a communist”
28:09 Far-left/far-right: Shifting the rules around speech
29:40 Ukraine and Russia
35:00 The “Musk boost” for Weidel in figures
38:06 the future of factchecking




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[-Nobody-]

Why listen to 44 minutes of DW’s opinion when you can listen to 44 minutes of the interview itself and develop your own opinions? Wait… no!! Dont do that! 😆

[angusmcbraith]

Not German, but my take on the talk, which I listened to, , was it was all reasonable. Alice W came across as normal and not extreme. I downloaded and read the AfD manifesto. I cannot find much to disagree with and certainly does not seem extreme - as a non German with no previous knowledge of the person/party.

[pmaboudi]

The fact is these days DW itself needs to be fact check, with so much misleading or false reporting by DW, how we can rely on your fact check???

[jeffreychatfield]

Seen the interview, made my own mind up she is not Hitler and her policies seam reasonable, good luck Germany hope you can talk freely about your difficult issue.

[artiartibald]

Europe has turned into a herd of obedient sheep, led by a shepherd from the USA

[joszeb]

Do these girls really enjoy making fun of themselves?

[fabianabongo]

Musk asked open questions about AFD. That's what we the listeners were interested in. You (DW and other left leaning media) have told us what AFD is, and now a chance to hear directly from the party about what it is about. I wonder why 120k people listening to Alice is such a threat to traditional media.

[Memegorillavr]

My takeaway was she's not a threat! Not extreme! Simply a person with her own ideas for Germany. If I'm being honest, listening to the media. I expected a wild conversation. 😂 It was boring and was more about Elon. 🤷‍♂️ It truly makes German media look like the crazy ones.

[ignorasmus]

It is interesting how he worries so much about prosperity and free speech, political reforms in Germany, UK, France etc. but never has issues with the life quality of life of people, the lack of free speech, the authoritarianism in China.

After all, it is the most populous nations in the world AND the place where the largest chunk of his own workforce lives.

China is the major contributor to his wealth that allows him to throw cash around the world to "help" and "save" the other countries ...

[ACG_Jaydog]

What they have in common...Common sense. Don't understand why Europe is so afraid of common sense

[fingerprint]

Sanity and the understanding that it is impossible to win against Russia without triggering the end of civilization...
And it would not be good for business!

[richarddietzen]

Thank you DW for bringing this to the English speaking world.

[blochspin]

what I learnt is that Alice Weidel should be the next Chancellor.

[christiaanhetzner]

Honestly I thought Musk and Weidel didn’t feel comfortable at all talking to each other. It felt forced like neither would engage were it not that they saw an advantage

[joszeb]

The DW working hard to ensure Alice Wiesel is Germany next chancellor 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[justingrundmann]

"far right" lol that's not going to work anymore

[KC-sunshine]

Please also bear in mind. Thore who want to listen to them do not analyse their contents like you. They only want to or are able to pick a few populas ideas and let those ideas consume them! His influence is much bigger than we think.

[d.sertsedesta]

DW is dying hard to confuse audiences. The good thing not only Germans but the entire world has listened the interview. AfD appears just right, not ‘far right’.

[technoviking]

Open conversation and long form interviews with politicians should be mandatory, not subject to legal donation scrutiny. Any other opinion on this just wrong.

[BurkhardEhnes]

How do "libertarian" and "re-migration" fit together?