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Elon Musk ignited a firestorm of controversy in Germany by penning a column in Die Welt in which he supported the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the election scheduled for next month. AfD is a “far right” European party, which means that it doubts the wisdom of mass third-world immigration. Given their experience in recent years, most Germans share that skepticism; hence the fear in establishment circles that AfD may win.

The Telegraph has a long news story about Musk’s endorsement and the fallout from it. It should be noted that Musk didn’t just endorse AfD, he also invited that party’s leader and candidate for Chancellor, Alice Weidel, to do a one-on-one interview on X prior to the election. And I believe he has also invited her to Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Reaction on the part of Germany’s “mainstream” parties, all of which have said they will not form a coalition government with AfD, is predictable:

Eva Marie Kogel, the opinion section editor [of Die Welt], resigned. Der Spiegel ran a front cover interview with Green Party politician Robert Habeck, the vice chancellor, under the headline: “Hands off our democracy, Mr. Musk!”

And Friedrich Merz, leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, dismissed it as “intrusive and pretentious”.

Musk’s op-ed argued that there is nothing “far right” about AfD’s platform, and that is indisputably true. I have linked to it before; there is not much that any American politician of a few decades ago, Republican or Democrat, would not have endorsed. AfD’s policies, which are pro-free enterprise, would be a vast improvement over the status quo with regard to German industry. Musk also pointed out that Weidel is a lesbian whose partner is from Sri Lanka. How Hitlerian can you get?

AfD’s critics admit that the party’s actual platform isn’t the problem:

Critics of the AfD say the problem is not the manifesto, but a pattern of rhetoric and behaviour that reeks of nostalgia for National Socialism.

Really? Let’s hear the details:

In 2024 alone, senior members were revealed to have attended a secret neo-Nazi conference in Potsdam that discussed the forced deportation of foreigners from Germany en masse.

Neo-Nazi? Seriously? I would want to know more about that. “Foreigners,” I assume, means illegal immigrants, whose deportation is certainly appropriate, and probably is supported by most Germans.

Maximilian Krah, the party’s star candidate in European parliamentary elections, had to be sidelined after he claimed SS members were not all criminals and that wearing the wrong uniform did not automatically make someone a villain.

This is thin stuff. I am no fan of the SS, to put it mildly, but no doubt it is true that not all SS members were criminals. Is this really the best they’ve got? And that guy has been “sidelined” by AfD.

And Björn Höcke, the AfD leader in Thuringia, was fined €13,000 (£10,850) for using the phrase “Alles für Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”), which prosecutors ruled was associated with Hitler’s SA stormtroopers, during a speech.

Again, this is pitifully weak. It is much like fining Trump for saying “America first.” Liberals hate patriotism, but if these are the worst accusations that can be brought against AfD, I think saving Germany’s economy from the Greens and restoring free speech are well worth the cost.

But there is another important point: for a long time, Europe’s establishment has demonized all objections to mass immigration. Debate about immigration has not been allowed in polite society, and any party that dared to question the immigration status quo, no matter how disastrous that status quo proved to be, was labeled “far right,” regardless of what its other policies might be.

Inevitably, parties that were ostracized, decreed to be out of the mainstream, and labeled “far right” attracted some people who were, indeed, out of the mainstream and far right. That is what happens when you don’t allow an issue that is of vital public concern to be debated within an establishment consensus. But the idea that parties like AfD, if in power, would have troops (what troops?) goose-stepping down Unter den Linden is absurd.

Across Europe, populist parties whose signature issue is immigration have either taken power, or, as in Germany, may be on the verge to taking power. We are, of course, seeing the same thing here. In my opinion, that is entirely to the good. If some of those populist parties, like AfD, include some undesirable elements, it will be far easier to weed them out than to expect anything good from the likes of Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz.