Current: Tesla CEO Musk praises AfD after victory in Saxony-Anhalt, denies right-wing extremism
Image: Tesla (Musk at the 2025 shareholder meeting)
Just about 100 kilometers from the border to that federal state, the question arises after Sunday’s state election about what is actually going on in or with Saxony-Anhalt. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, however, is very satisfied with the developments there: “Well done!”, he praised on X early Monday Alice Weidel, the party’s federal spokesperson who congratulated the AfD and its leading candidate on the election results. In another post on X, the Tesla chief denied that the party should be classified as right-wing extremist.
Musk’s Politics Harm Tesla Sales
Several surveys have already shown that CEO Musk’s political involvement is harmful to Tesla’s sales and his own reputation. Unlike most other business leaders, he shows no restraint in this regard and actively campaigned in the U.S. for Donald Trump’s election as president. In Europe, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO supports parties and movements that are typically associated with the far-right spectrum.
Musk has since stopped his controversial work for the U.S. Spark Commission DOGE, but otherwise he does not seem to be affected by negative poll results. According to him, his goal is to save Western civilization from destruction. Thus, the Tesla CEO not only reiterated on X before the election in Saxony-Anhalt that only the AfD can save Germany, but he also congratulated the party on its results and defended it.
Well done!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 6, 2026
According to the preliminary official final results, on Sunday 43.8 percent of those in Saxony-Anhalt who exercised their right to vote chose the AfD and its leading candidate, Ulrich Siegmund. This was higher than expected based on polls, and it also means the AfD narrowly missed its goal of being able to govern with an absolute majority in the state parliament. It is logically almost impossible for all of its voters to be right-wing extremists—there are simply too many of them to belong to a narrow sense of fringe group.
AfD candidate thanks for support
The AfD’s state branch in Saxony-Anhalt is classified by the state’s intelligence agency as having “clearly right-wing extremist tendencies.” According to the interior ministry, information gathered by the agency shows “that AfD Saxony-Anhalt’s propaganda targets the fundamental principles of the liberal democratic order.” The Wall Street Journal cited this classification when reporting on the results of Germany’s election — but this drew criticism from Tesla’s CEO.
They’re not far right, you knuckleheads!
This is especially dumb coming from WSJ.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2026
"They're not right-wing extremists, you idiots," Musk commented on a reference to the report. It's especially stupid that something like this comes from the WSJ, he added. Not only German users on X disagreed with this, one of them citing an assessment from Musk's company SpaceX's AI Grok. In contrast, the AfD candidate Siegmund used the opportunity to thank Musk for his support. If he were given responsibility in Germany, he would welcome the chance for "strong and constructive cooperation," he wrote.