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The hard-right Alternative for Germany might not have done as well in Sunday’s election as its leaders had hoped, but its groundbreaking performance was enough for a congratulatory phone call from Elon Musk.
Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate for the party, known by its German initials, AfD, told journalists on Monday morning that she had slept through a call from Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man and a top adviser to President Trump. When she looked at her phone on the morning after her party won 20.8 percent of the vote, she said, she had a missed call from the United States, which turned out to be from Mr. Musk, who, she said, “congratulated me personally.”
Several hours later, Mr. Musk did it again publicly, when he reposted on X a congratulatory note from Hungarian authoritarian leader Victor Orban with an added note that read: “Indeed, congratulations @Alice_Weidel! At this rate of growth, @AfD will be the majority party by the next election.”
The AfD came in second place in Germany’s national election with more than 20 percent of the vote, nearly double its share in 2021 and a record for any far-right party since the end of World War II. But Friedrich Merz, leader of the first-place Christian Democrats and the presumptive future chancellor, has ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD, so Ms. Weidel and her party will continue to be sidelined.
Parts of the AfD, which campaigns on curbing irregular immigration, increasing deportations and improving the economy, have been classified as extremist by German domestic intelligence. But Vice President JD Vance met with Ms. Weidel earlier this month in Munich, after he shocked European leaders by telling them that mainstream parties should not exclude far-right factions like the AfD.
Mr. Musk made a splash in December when he publicly endorsed the AfD, first on X, his social media platform, and later in a 75-minute video conversation with Ms. Weidel that he hosted on X. In January, he tried once again to promote the party by calling into a raucous party meeting in Halle, where he encouraged the crowd to try to convince their neighbors, friends and family to vote for the AfD.
It was a very unusual public intervention by a foreign national and White House adviser in a German election, made all the more striking when Mr. Musk told AfD supporters that there was “too much of a focus on past guilt” in Germany.
But Mr. Musk’s push did not seem to have a significant effect on the party’s already high polling numbers. Tino Chrupalla, who is a co-leader of the party with Ms. Weidel, acknowledged before the election that Mr. Musk might not be a pull for potential AfD voters, but said that his endorsement had led to interest and donations from other business leaders.