American billionaire Elon Musk supported the German party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) in a commentary for the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, FOCUS reported.
The interview was published online on December 28 and prompted the editor of the commentary to resign in protest.
In the commentary, published in German by the leading newspaper of the Axel Springer media group, Musk elaborates on his post on the social media platform "X" from last week, in which he claimed that "only the AfD can save Germany".
"The portrayal of the AfD as a right-wing extremist party is patently false, given that Alice Weidel, the party leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please", Musk states in the article.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD nationally as a suspected extremism figure since 2021.
Shortly after the article was published online, opinion column editor Eva Marie Kogel announced on her "X" profile that she had resigned, with a link to the comment.
"Democracy and journalism thrive thanks to freedom of expression. This includes dealing with polarizing positions and classifying them in a journalistic way,“ the newspaper's editor-in-chief Jan Philipp Burghardt and Ulf Poschardt, who takes over as publisher on January 1, told Reuters.
They said the discussion of Musk's article, which had about 340 comments within hours of its publication, was “very revealing”.
The newspaper published Burchardt's response under Musk's comment.
“Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his approach that only the AfD can save Germany is fatally wrong,” he wrote, referring to the AfD's desire to leave the European Union and seek rapprochement with Russia, as well as to please China.
The support for the AfD by Musk, who has also defended his right to influence German politics due to "significant investments", comes as Germans are due to vote on February 23 after the coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed.
The AfD is second in opinion polls and could potentially thwart a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany's main, more centrist parties have vowed to avoid any support from the AfD at the national level.