According to Reuters, Scholz spoke to reporters after a campaign event in Berlin on Tuesday, saying, “What is new is that he is intervening in favor of right-wing politicians all over Europe. And this is really disgusting, and it is not good for the democratic development in all the European Union.”
Musk, a known ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has repeatedly urged Scholz to resign and declared the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party the country’s “only savior.” He recently appeared via video link at an AfD rally, where he told Germans not to feel guilty about their past and encouraged them to take pride in their culture.
Scholz dismissed Musk’s statements on Germany’s history, emphasizing that the nation continues to bear responsibility for the atrocities committed by Germans during World War Two.
“This week the world is remembering the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz,” Scholz said, adding that millions of Jews and others were killed in Europe by Germans. “This is a historic responsibility.”
Musk, who is the world’s richest person, came under fire last week for making a gesture during Trump’s inauguration festivities that was likened online to a Nazi salute.
The AfD, classified as right-wing extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence, is currently polling second in nationwide surveys before an upcoming snap election, with immigration becoming a key issue amid a rise in violent incidents allegedly involving foreign-born suspects.
The AfD has been criticized as employing Nazi slogans. Last year, the AfD city council faction laid a wreath at the city cemetery in Leuna in Saxony-Anhalt with the inscription "For Führer, people and fatherland. Why?" This was first reported by the "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung".
Another story blew up in the media last year when AfD right-wing extremist Björn Höcke was fined several times for the public use of the "Everything for Germany" slogan, which was originally used in the 1920s and 1930s by Sturmabteilung, the original paramilitary wing of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (the Nazi party).
(jh)
Source: Reuters, Spiegel