Elections are coming up in Germany, and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is currently the country’s second party. The world’s richest man Elon Musk, meanwhile, has been trying to boost the fascists even further.
The multibillionaire spoke at an AfD election campaign event on 25 January in favour of ‘national pride’, against the ‘dilution’ resulting from multiculturalism, and insisted that “there is too much focus on past guilt”. The final comment even received criticism from some who had defended his recent Nazi salute.
One important part of his speech that hasn’t received as much attention, however, is when he shared perhaps the biggest reason for his enthusiastic support of the AfD. Because xenophobia is just what catches people’s attention the most. But the real story is the elite battle to weaken the regulations that protect people and the environment. It’s the aim of both Liberal and fascist sections of Western plutocracy. The big difference is how far they’re each willing to go. And billionaires like Musk want them to go as far as possible.
Musk and the AfD: racism is just a tool for corporate takeover
The AfD is the modern heir of the Nazi project, and some other far-right parties in Europe even consider it to be too extreme.
Musk has previously praised the AfD for planning to “reduce government overregulation, lower taxes and deregulate the market”. His Tesla plant near Berlin would certainly benefit from these measures. And in order to forward such a narrative, the AfD would ideally like to break away from the European Union (EU).
This is what Musk referred to in his speech, saying:
There’s too much bureaucracy from Brussels, too much control from a sort of global elite… There should be less global government. There should be more determination by individual countries.
Elon Musk tells an AfD rally in Germany: "I think there is too much focus on past guilt (in Germany), and we need to move beyond that. Children should not feel guilty for the sins of their parents – their great grandparents even" pic.twitter.com/xtFMfAYrIp
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) January 25, 2025
In addition to Elon Musk’s high-profile support, the AfD received its “largest-ever financial donation” last week from a multimillionaire. But because of Germany’s “persistent inequality“, especially between the West and East of the country, the AfD has managed to position itself as an anti-establishment party and attract support from people who have few resources and little power.
The right-wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is leading the polls in Germany, and is trying to pander to AfD supporters. But as Marc Martorell Junyent writes in Jacobin, when the CDU’s plans for “massive cuts in social welfare and lower taxes for the rich” are in action, the AfD’s popularity could rise further. And the far-right party has “even more radical proposals to slash welfare”:
Families with low incomes would earn even less under the AfD’s free-market economic policies and would be particularly affected by the trimming of the social state with proposals like cutting unemployment benefits,
A global agenda of deregulation – soft and hard
The EU currently has strong regulations, especially regarding product safety, data protection, and the environment. But pressure is mounting from Donald Trump’s new administration, along with European business figures, “to speed up efforts to reduce regulation” in the EU. Environmentalists and trade unionists have warned that neoliberal European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is on track to deregulate “essential EU social, environmental, democracy and human rights protections”.
Neoliberals in Britain are pushing a similar agenda of deregulation under prime minister Keir Starmer, much to Donald Trump’s liking. But Musk has been pushing Starmer and supporting Britain’s own fascists in Reform UK so that they can push their elitist, corporate agenda when the current British leader falls.
Musk, meanwhile, “advocates cutting government spending, reducing taxes and repealing regulation“, and now has a role in the US government to help him do this. Weakening the protections for people and planet is his mission. And if he can encourage the US, Germany, and other countries to go further down the path towards deregulation, it will only benefit him and his billionaire friends.
Featured image via the Canary
