Elon vs. Olaf

“Stay cool”: Scholz counters Musk with calm

Scholz - here with Musk in 2022 in Grünheide in Tesla's "Gigafactory" - on dealing with Musk's comments: "Stay cool"

(Bild: APA/AFP/POOL/Patrick Pleul)

In connection with the personal attacks by US tech billionaire Elon Musk against Germany's Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and other leading German politicians, Scholz has called for calm.

 "As social democrats, we have been used to the fact since the century before last that there are rich media entrepreneurs who don't appreciate social democratic politics - and don't keep their opinions to themselves," Scholz told the magazine "stern" (Saturday).

Of course, things are a little different today because media companies and platforms now have a global reach. "But it's nothing new in this respect. You have to stay cool," the German Chancellor continued. "I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk is campaigning for an extreme right-wing party like the AfD, which preaches rapprochement with Putin's Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations," Scholz added.

"Musk may claim what he wants"
Musk, who was appointed by future US President Donald Trump as his special advisor, has made several disparaging remarks about Scholz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in recent weeks. After the attack in Magdeburg on December 20, among other things, he wrote in his online service X that Scholz should "resign immediately" and was an "incompetent fool". Musk also called Steinmeier an "anti-democratic tyrant".

"The Federal President is not an anti-democratic tyrant, and Germany is a strong and stable democracy - Musk can say whatever he wants," Scholz continued to tell Stern magazine. "In Germany, the will of the citizens is what counts, not the erratic statements of a billionaire from the USA," he added.

Scholz does not want to invite Musk to the German Chancellery. "I don't think much of courting Mr Musk's favor. I'm happy to leave that to others."

Met at the Tesla plant opening
He himself met the Tesla boss once in March 2022 at the opening of the electric car manufacturer's plant in Brandenburg and spoke briefly. At the time, the local AfD party was agitating against the establishment of the Tesla plant in Grünheide. A few months later, Musk contacted him again by telephone with a personal request. "It's no secret that Tesla was against state subsidies for e-charging stations in Germany," said Scholz.

Musk had justified his comments on German politics in a controversial guest article for the newspaper "Die Welt" by saying that he had made "significant investments in the German industrial and technological landscape". He therefore had "the right (...) to speak openly about his political orientation."