German Leader Is More Worried About Elon Musk's Backing Of Far-Right Party Than His Insults
HuffPost
“You have to stay cool,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German magazine Stern.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he’s staying “cool” against critical personal comments made by Elon Musk but finds it worrying that the U.S. billionaire makes the effort to get involved in a general election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Scholz was reacting after Musk, a close ally to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, called the chancellor a “fool” after his coalition government collapsed in November and later backed the AfD in an opinion piece he wrote for a major newspaper in Germany.
Scholz, head of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), said in comments published Saturday by the German magazine Stern that there is “nothing new” in criticism by “rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not hold back with their opinions.”
“You have to stay cool,” Scholz told Stern.
“I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk is supporting a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing extremist, which preaches rapprochement with Putin’s Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations,” Scholz said.