Germany election: Elon Musk faces flak for backing far-right AfD as ‘last hope’, gets compared to Vladimir Putin

The German government has accused American billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk of trying to influence its election.

The allegation comes after a guest opinion article was published in Welt am Sonntag newspaper in which Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as Germany's last hope.

Germany is set to go for the parliamentary election on February 23 next year, as the coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz has collapsed.

The Commentary Editor for Welt am Sonntag newspaper has resigned in protest of Musk’s views.

A German government spokesperson said: “It is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election with X posts and the opinion piece.”

The spokesperson added: "After all, freedom of opinion also covers the greatest nonsense."

The government spokesperson further said that Musk's endorsement of the AfD was "a recommendation to vote for a party that is being monitored (by domestic intelligence) on suspicion of being right-wing extremist and which has already been recognised as partly right-wing extremist".

The Tesla CEO has defended his right to weigh in on German politics because of his "significant investments". He has praised the AfD's approach to regulation, taxes and market deregulation.

He also called for Scholz's resignation after a car rammed into a crowd at a Christmas market on December 20, killing five people.

Musk is receiving flak from several German politicians for his endorsement of the AfD party.

Lars Klingbeil, the co-leader of Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) has compared him to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Both want to influence our elections and specifically support the AfD's enemies of democracy. They want Germany to be weakened and plunged into chaos," Klingbeil told the Funke news group on Monday.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, told Funke that Musk's comments were "intrusive and pretentious".