The news that Elon Musk and Alice Weidel, the leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), will have an interview on January 9 has shaken Europe. The event, which is set to happen on Musk’s platform X, has already inspired far-right fans in Germany and other countries.
It also mobilized anti-EU and pro-Russian propaganda resources and amplified their narratives. We have conducted research into how news websites caught on to disseminating Kremlin-friendly narratives and gave positive coverage to Elon Musk and Alice Weidel.
Musk’s Engagement with the AfD: A Catalyst for Mobilization
The owner of the popular social networking site X (previously Twitter), Elon Musk, is becoming more influential in European politics, especially in the eyes of far-right groups. In addition to promoting these organizations’ narratives, his actions seem to be in line with Russia’s strategic goal of undermining the EU and the West’s unity. European leaders are alarmed by this complex relationship because they perceive it as a perilous fusion of politics, technology, and malign foreign propaganda.
Known for its anti-immigration and nationalist stance, the AfD has long aimed for increased prominence and credibility in German politics. Musk’s open endorsement of the party, which includes his assertion that it is Germany’s sole chance to prevent “economic and cultural decay,” gives the AfD what it needs.
European politicians have expressed concerns that this direct involvement amounts to foreign meddling in Germany’s election process. Given that the interview takes place before important legislative elections in February, the timing is especially delicate. A survey indicates that most Germans believe the Musk-Weidel conversation could enhance the AfD’s prominence and potentially shift the electoral balance in favor of the far-right.
Propaganda Media and the Musk-Weidel Dynamic
Russia has a well-documented interest in amplifying far-right movements in Europe. Pro-Russian media sources and propaganda networks have warmly welcomed the Musk-Weidel declaration, framing it as a defeat for liberal democratic forces in the EU and a victory for “patriots in Europe.”
Read more: Which German websites help disseminate pro-Russian narratives
Dozens of Russian and German pro-Russian Telegram channels promote Weidel and Musk, disseminate and amplify the far-right leader’s anti-EU messages, and advertise their interview. To name a few of them: DeFreundschaftRu, deutscherussischeheimat, matroschka_today, GHZFriedrichMaik, and also channels of Russian and pro-Kremlin news websites in German: DE RT, uncut_news, unzensiert…
"But everything she said is the truth and true patriotism !!!! Quotes: Weidel, who is Swiss by choice, calls us Germans “a defeated people”. The USA treats us like a colony, the EU keeps us down. She will put an end to this.
The pithy slogans are only intended to conceal one thing: Weidel is submitting to Trump and Musk. They want to keep the EU down - and in return take Germany out of the race as the political and economic power on our continent.
Weidel makes it sound like this: “We will coordinate with the USA.” Weidel is only offering herself, her AfD and our country as allies for Trump and Musk."- https://t.me/DeFreundschaftRu/16756
- https://t.me/deutscherussischeheimat/74546
- https://t.me/matroschka_today/63084
- https://t.me/uncut_news/75715
- https://t.me/GHZFriedrichMaik/46084
- https://t.me/unzensiert/97701
The most active in promoting Musk-Weidel’s conversation has been the German edition of the Russian disinformation website Pravda. They published a dozen of stories on this topic promoting anti-EU and anti-Western narratives, that play in the Kremlin’s geopolitical interests.
“The EU is weak, it is a nobody, a half-dead zombie, its threats are without substance. With Trump behind him, Musk definitely has the upper hand. The EU Commission will only make a fool of itself, everyone will.”
- https://deutsch.news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/07/281282.html
- https://deutsch.news-pravda.com/eu/2025/01/08/281883.html
- https://deutsch.news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/07/281202.html
- https://deutsch.news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/06/280514.html
- https://deutsch.news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/06/280446.html
- https://deutsch.news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/05/280170.html
- https://www.pravda-tv.com/2025/01/den-empoerten-zum-trotz-musk-legt-nach-die-moral-von-brd-medien/
- https://www.pravda-tv.com/2025/01/der-voelkerrechtliche-status-deutschlands-und-die-kanzlerakte/
Russian propaganda media have utilized the announcement about the upcoming interview to demonize the leadership in the EU countries and promote far right politicians. To back the claims, they quoted Russian officials, such as Alexei Pushkov, who predicts that Mask-Weidel interview will have significant consequences on the German politics.
“The interview of Alice Weidel, co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany party and candidate for chancellor of Germany, with American billionaire Ilon Musk could hit German politicians hard, said Alexei Pushkov, head of Russia’s Federation Council’s commission on information policy.”
- https://static.ren.tv/news/politika/1296183-v-sovfede-nazvali-udarom-dlia-politikov-frg-interviu-sopredsedatelia-adg
- https://lenta.ru/news/2025/01/06/pushkov-zayavil-o-shokirovavshem-germaniyu-reshenii-maska/
Macron, who has brought France to the verge of collapse, expressed anger at Musk’s remarks regarding Europe. A boomerang of their own making has hit European liberals.
- https://www.mk.ru/politics/2025/01/07/dovedshiy-franciyu-do-ruchki-makron-razobidelsya-na-slova-maska-o-evrope.html
Among the German media friendly to the AfD and the Kremlin, we found examples of the massive use of a propaganda network to promote and amplify narratives against the EU and the West and mobilize the far-right electorate.
The article lists influential European figures’ negative reactions to the upcoming interview but ultimately shifts the focus to the AfD’s alleged suffering from a public broadcast boycott.
“He [former EU Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton] wanted to remind Weidel, “That your counterpart (210 million followers) gives you a clear and valuable advantage over your competitors.” The fact that the AfD has been largely boycotted on public broadcasting in Germany for years did not bother the ex-commissioner.”
- https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2025/darum-soll-es-beim-gespraech-zwischen-weidel-und-musk-gehen
The German edition of RT also promotes the upcoming interview.“Weidel’s spokesman Daniel Tapp announced that: “The main topics will be freedom of expression and the AfD’s ideas for a sustainable Germany.”
- https://de.rt.com/inland/231637-weidel-freuen-uns-sehr-auf
Another German-language manipulative web outlet, PiNews, promotes the upcoming interview using the title “Alice Weidel’s US reckoning: ‘Slaves” of the USA,” remarking that “Anyone who finds Alice Weidel’s assessment too harsh should be reminded of the eye-opening bestseller “The Only World Power” by Zbigniew Brzeziski.”.
- https://www.pi-news.net/2025/01/usa-abrechnung-von-alice-weidel-sklaven-der-usa/
The pro-Russian outlet Journalisten Watch has made multiple announcements about the meeting between Musk and Weidel.
“Now the Green agitators, ideological fascists, and anti-democrats are really going crazy: Since the date of the Musk-Weidel conversation on Twitter was confirmed as X-Space for January 9, they have been calling with ever more ruthless openness for censorship or, ideally, the complete shutdown of X (formerly Twitter).”
- https://journalistenwatch.com/2025/01/04/eu-und-gruene-meinungsfaschisten-wollen-musk-weidel-treffen-zensieren-oder-gleich-verbieten/
“Total escalation: This is how green politicians want to prevent the Musk & Weidel interview!”
- https://journalistenwatch.com/2025/01/03/%f0%9f%92%a5totale-eskalation-so-wollen-gruene-politiker-das-musk-weidel-interview-verhindern/
“Alice Weidel’s conversation with Elon Musk on January 9th is eagerly awaited. Only the political and media establishment is fuming: so consistently had they prevented AfD leader Alice Weidel from presenting her program (like the other candidates for chancellor) in television interviews…”
- https://report24.news/mainstream-schaut-in-die-roehre-alice-weidel-im-interview-zu-ihrem-x-talk-mit-elon-musk/
“A live conversation with AfD leader Alice Weidel is to follow soon, following the example of his conversation with Trump in August. In an announcement, Musk described Weidel as a “possible” chancellor.”
- https://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/713673/elon-musk-afd-und-europa
“First the EU tried to stop me from having an online conversation with President Donald Trump. Now they want to stop people from hearing a conversation with Alice Weidel, who could be the next Chancellor of Germany. These people really hate democracy!!”
- https://www.freiewelt.net/nachricht/musk-ueber-eu-diese-leute-hassen-die-demokratie-10099007
The German pro-Kremlin outlet Weltwoche also joined the campaign. It attacks the mainstream media in an attempt to delegitimize the prominent media, critical to the far right, and to give legitimacy to the so-called ‘alternative media,’ which are often biased anti-EU and pro-Kremlin outlets.
“What the mainstream media is demonstrating in Austria has already been demonstrated in Germany, Italy, France, and the USA. They write brilliantly outside the reality, twist the terms, and indulge their personal preferences and their personal hatred. And they just don’t stop.”
- https://weltwoche.ch/daily/kickl-weidel-meloni-le-pen-trump-medien-schreiben-sich-fulminant-ins-abseits-und-merken-es-immer-noch-nicht/
- https://weltwoche.ch/daily/vorteil-fuer-die-afd-eu-prueft-rechtliche-schritte-gegen-x-inhaber-elon-musk/
Other German news outlets, previously identified as platforms with pro-Kremlin and anti-Western publications, backed its efforts.
“Live interview between Elon Musk and Alice Weidel eagerly awaited”
- https://www.epochtimes.de/politik/deutschland/live-interview-zwischen-elon-musk-und-alice-weidel-mit-spannung-erwartet-a4996138.html
- https://www.epochtimes.de/politik/deutschland/live-talk-weidel-und-musk-wohl-am-9-januar-a4992279.html
“Slaves don’t fight: AfD politician Weidel speaks exclusively with The American Conservative”
- https://uncutnews.ch/sklaven-kaempfen-nicht-afd-politikerin-weidel-spricht-exklusiv-mit-the-american-conservative/
Articles and posts that promoted the Musk-Weidel interview in Russian propaganda media, as well as in pro-AfD and pro-Russian media in Germany, also resonated in French pro-Kremlin outlets. We conducted a brief review of French media, previously caught on posting pro-Russian narratives, and discovered that the event rekindled anti-EU rhetoric and criticism of political leaders in France, Germany, and the EU overall. Simultaneously, the media positively covered the views of the far right and the Musk-Weidel interview.
We selected a number of eloquent quotes from pro-Russian media in France and found that the most radical and biased (against the EU and the West) quotes are not from Russia Today (RT) but from such resources as Resistance Republicaine, Reseau International, and Egalite et Reconciliation.
There are openly propagandistic headlines about “rotten Western democratic regimes,” the decline of the West, patriots of Europe in the form of right-wing radicals, the good Musk, who turned Twitter into a “platform for free expression” (no mention of pro-Russian disinformation), and most importantly, they promote Musk’s conversation with Weidel, claiming that it put European leaders in a state of panic.
Of course, they didn’t neglect the opportunity to mention global conspiracies, control by the financial elite and “the evil Soros.”
“Macron’s insult to Elon Musk: “Kid, you’re just a reactionary! Na!” An underachieving banker thinks he can humiliate the man of global success! Yet this banker’s credentials include having led France into financial bankruptcy, and not only that!”
- https://resistancerepublicaine.com/2025/01/07/https-mechantreac-blogspot-com-2019-05-quest-ce-quun-reac-html/
- https://resistancerepublicaine.com/2025/01/08/panique-en-allemagne-avant-la-tres-attendue-conversation-entre-musk-et-alice-weidel/
“A game of anti-globalist nationalist dominoes. Fourteen years after the premonitory title Comprendre l’Empire, it looks as if the world is heading for a revolt of nations, against globalism, or Empire. In this game of dominoes, we can count on Elon Musk, Trump’s enforcer, to topple rotten democratic regimes. He made France, now he’s making England.”
- https://egaliteetreconciliation.fr/Un-jeu-de-dominos-nationalistes-antimondialiste-77540.html
“Panic in Germany before the much-anticipated conversation between Musk and Alice Weidel. Habeck, Hitler repainted Green, is causing a tsunami against freedom of expression, not only in Germany, but in the Uerssjus to Auschwitz. Indeed, we are all a little blinded, admiring, hopeful, as we watch the eventual rise to power of the German patriots.”
- https://resistancerepublicaine.com/2025/01/08/panique-en-allemagne-avant-la-tres-attendue-conversation-entre-musk-et-alice-weidel
“Elon Musk attacks Macron and Facebook CEO announces end to censorship. Elon Musk, who bought Twitter so recently, has turned the social network into a weapon of free speech and today. “Oh, like that time Starmer called Donald Trump a racist and said the British government should do everything to stop him?”
- https://lesmoutonsenrages.fr/2025/01/08/elon-musk-attaque-macron-et-le-pdg-de-facebook-annonce-mettre-fin-a-la-censure-ledito-de-charles-sannat/
“Accused by Emmanuel Macron of intervening “directly in elections” in Europe, Elon Musk strikes back. The American billionaire sent him back examples of what he considers British interference in the US presidential elections.”
- https://francais.rt.com/international/115921-macron-a-accuse-elon-musk
“Leadership crisis in Western Europe. Party leader Alice Weidel has become the most popular candidate for German Chancellor, with 24% of Germans voting for her. The richest man on the planet, Elon Musk, put it very clearly: “Europe and Germany are in decline, not least because of the falling birth rate.””
- https://reseauinternational.net/crise-du-leadership-en-europe-occidentale/
“Billionaires George Soros and Bill Gates have been interfering in European politics for decades, spending huge sums to influence elections!”
- https://planetes360.fr/elon-musk-vient-dapprouver-sur-x-une-reponse-aux-attaques-de-macron-qui-le-met-completement-ko/
“Africa, Ukraine, Elon Musk: Macron is in total panic mode, and it shows…”
- https://lemediaen442.fr/afrique-ukraine-elon-musk-macron-est-en-panique-totale-et-ca-se-voit
“Elon Musk VS George Soros. Musk: George Soros spent billions to create the fake asylum-seeker nightmare that is destroying America and Europe.”
- https://ndf.fr/nos-breves/08-01-2025/elon-musk-vs-george-soros/
“A quick reminder for the French who are “scandalized” by Elon Musk’s alleged “interference”. “-A CIA and NSA listening station is installed on the roof of the American embassy, just a few meters from the Elysée Palace. The NSA spied on the 2012 presidential candidates (Sarkozy, DSK, Hollande, Aubry and Marine Le Pen) (source: Wikileaks) and it’s a safe bet that it has continued to do so for all subsequent elections.”
- https://ndf.fr/nos-breves/05-01-2025/petit-rappel-pour-les-francais-qui-se-scandalisent-de-la-pretendue-ingerence-de-elon-musk/
An examination of the far-right-friendly and pro-Kremlin media sources shows a concerted attempt to use the interview to further anti-West and anti-EU themes that support Russian geopolitical objectives. Russia gains from heightened EU fragmentation and diminished opposition to the AfD’s policies, especially regarding Ukraine, by raising the party’s prominence.
This scenario shows how Musk’s actions are empowering far-right movements and enabling Russian propaganda to further destabilize Europe.
Comparative Lens: Tucker Carlson and Putin vs. Elon Musk and Alice Weidel
The forthcoming interview between Elon Musk and Alice Weidel draws striking parallels to Tucker Carlson’s widely criticized interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both events highlight the power of influential media personalities and platforms in amplifying political narratives and shaping public opinion.
Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin became a significant propaganda victory for the Kremlin. As one of the most-watched figures in American media, Carlson provided Putin a global platform to articulate his narrative on topics like blaming NATO, justifying Russia’s war in Ukraine, and criticizing Western policies.
Elon Musk’s upcoming livestreamed conversation with Alice Weidel mirrors this dynamic, albeit in a European context.
The Role of Social Media: A New Battleground for Democracy
X, under Musk’s leadership, has become a pivotal platform for political discourse, but its unregulated nature poses significant risks to democratic processes. The amplification of far-right and pro-Russian narratives through algorithms and recommendation systems on X has raised concerns about the platform’s role in shaping public opinion.
The European Commission’s investigation into X under the Digital Services Act (DSA) focuses on these risks. While the upcoming interview between Musk and Weidel is legal, the potential for algorithmic amplification of the event has drawn scrutiny. Critics argue that such amplification could disproportionately influence voter sentiment, particularly among undecided or vulnerable populations.
Far-Right Mobilization Beyond Germany
The implications of the Musk-Weidel discussion go beyond Germany. In Europe, far-right organizations have gathered around the event, seeing it as evidence that their causes are becoming more and more legitimate. Musk’s involvement energizes these movements, providing far-right groups in nations like France, Italy, and Hungary with a sense of unity and impetus.
Musk’s involvement in European politics carries additional risks, as this transnational mobilization highlights. He is unintentionally—or even on purpose—helping to undermine the political unity and democratic principles of the EU by giving far-right leaders and narratives a forum.
European Leaders React: Calls for Accountability
European politicians have responded quickly and harshly. Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, denounced Musk’s meddling as an unacceptable infringement on the nation’s democratic procedures. Both Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and French President Emmanuel Macron have gone farther, accusing Musk of supporting a “Reactionary International” that seeks to undermine liberal democracy.
These leaders have cautioned that the unrestrained influence of social media platforms seriously threatens democratic institutions, highlighting the deeper implications of Musk’s activities. With the European Commission highlighting the need to protect elections from outside interference, calls for stricter oversight of platforms such as X have increased.
Polling and Public Perception: The AfD’s Surge
Public opinion polls indicate that Musk’s endorsement and his platform’s engagement with the AfD are resonating with voters. A significant portion of the German electorate believes that the interview with Alice Weidel will boost the AfD’s ratings ahead of the February elections.
This trend is particularly pronounced in Germany’s eastern states, where the AfD already enjoys strong support. Musk’s involvement may help the party expand its appeal to new demographics, including younger voters and those disillusioned with mainstream political parties.
A Perfect Storm for European Democracy
Elon Musk’s actions in Germany serve as an example of how a number of destabilizing factors have come together, including the effect of foreign propaganda, the growth of far-right populism, and the strategic use of social media. Musk is supporting far-right movements and, whether on purpose or by accident, playing into Russia’s hands by interacting directly with the AfD.
For the institutions and leaders of Europe, this dynamic presents a serious obstacle. The stakes are tremendous as the German elections draw near, not only for Germany but also for the integrity of European democracy as a whole. There has never been a greater need for public awareness, regulation, and vigilance.
In this continuing story, the Musk-Weidel interview will surely be a turning point that will test democracies’ ability to handle the intricate relationships between politics, technology, and foreign influences.
