‘Don’t feed the troll’: German chancellor responds to Elon Musk comments
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World’s richest man has been voicing support for Germany’s far-right AfD party while insulting its current leaders. When the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was asked in an interview about the barrage of insults being directed at him and other German leaders by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, his reply was: “Don’t feed the troll.”.
Speaking to German weekly Stern, Scholz described the criticisms as nothing new. “You have to stay cool,” he said in the interview. “As Social Democrats, we have long been used to the fact that there are rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics – and do not hide their opinions.”.
He said he would make no efforts to engage with Musk, who has endorsed the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in next month’s federal elections and will host a live discussion on his social media platform X with its candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel. “I don’t believe in courting Mr Musk’s favour. I’m happy to leave that to others,” he said. “The rule is: don’t feed the troll.”.
It was the chancellor’s most direct response to Musk, coming days after he urged voters not to let the “owners of social media channels” decide the outcome of the general election in a New Year’s Eve address that did not mention Musk by name or his platform X.
Since taking the reins of X, Musk has increasingly seized on the social media platform’s global reach to push his own political views. After spending a quarter of a billion dollars to help secure Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Musk has used his influence to back far-right and anti-establishment parties across the continent, while attacking some of its most prominent centre-left leaders.
