When the technological billionaire Elon Musk seemed to make a Nazi greeting to a republican crowd that honors the inauguration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, social networks illuminated with accusations that he was a fascist.
When he went to a political manifestation of the extreme right alternative for the Germany party (AFD) in the German city of Halle, those suspicions seemed confirmed.
“There is too much focus on past guilt and we have to go from that,” he said, from a giant video screen.
The crowd cheered when he said: “It is good to be proud to be German. It is good to be proud of German culture, German values and not lose that in some kind of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.”
And they cheered even more when he accused the ruling social democrats of adopting a “totalitarian approach” of their beliefs, and ended with “freedom of expression is the basis of democracy.”
The party leader, Alice Weidel, smiled widely from the podium and applauded.
Is Elon Musk a Nazi? The Nazis seem to think so. Christian nationalists, white supremacists and the neo -Nazis declaration in the United States acclaim the greeting of musk as a historical return for their cause.
Musk’s public concerns in X, their messaging platform, are certainly libertarian. He fulminates against the excessive regulation and waste of the government and becomes obsessed with the release of the market and people’s potential.
It is outraged with what it sees as an un controlled immigration and cultural cohesion. It seems to believe that everyone should stay where they were born, although he emigrated from South Africa to Canada in 1988.
As a corollary, he insists on binary gender roles as a means to reverse the demographic decline in developed economies.
And he constantly plays with the issue of freedom of expression, insisting that democratic societies are hypocritical by affirming it.
Controversially, on one occasion in 2023 it supports an anti -Semitic position in X.
The publication is read in part: “Jewish communities (sic) have been pressing the exact type of dialectical hatred against whites who say they want people to stop using them.”
Musk then replied: “You have told the real truth.”
Does this make it a Nazi?
“No, he is not (a Nazi),” said Jean-Yves Camus, co-director of the Observatory of Political Radicalism at the Jean Jaures Foundation in Paris. He believes that Musk and Trump are selfish instead of ideological.
“The type of regime they want to achieve is like an autocracy, the rule of law of a man, without limits. They have no limits, ”he told Al Jazeera.
“I think he is ideologically without mooring,” Constantinos Filis agreed, who directs the Institute of Global Affairs of the American College of Greece.
“I don’t see coherent political thinking,” said Filis. “His thoughts come from their commercial interests and several floating ideas. I mean, what did you consider the opinion of Germany or the AFD leads to Musk to declare that the planet will save?
Filis referred to Musk’s comment on Halle: “This choice that arise in Germany is incredibly important. I could decide all the fate of Europe, perhaps the fate of the world. “
If Musk is not a true Nazi, why the leaders of the extreme right parties such as Weidel and the leader of the United Kingdom Reform Party, Nigel Farage, clamor for their support?
“It is clear that they want their money … and through X, Musk gives them a space to express themselves,” said Filis. “Through false accounts, they can also be giving them the appearance of support of people who may not exist.”
Musk also plays the base well. “The anti -systemic crowd … see a successful businessman who seems to have turned it into a stranger. That is what Musk sells, which is successful and goes against the system, ”said Filis.
If musk is not ideological, why does it bother to court the right end? It is not cheap. He paid the $ 277 million in the Trump re -election campaign, and Twitter, renowned X, cost him $ 44 billion.
However, the keys to their success did not come from the extreme right, make the United States again a great policy of Donald Trump.
A loan of $ 465 million that kept Tesla afloat of the Department of Energy in 2009 under the former president of the United States, Barack Obama, and a $ 1.6 billion contract of NASA that also saved her company Closing Space-X rockets after three launch failures in 2008 under George. W Bush, a Republican president who has denounced Maga’s policy.
Some believe that Musk’s policy is completely cynical.
“It seems to have performed a cost-benefit analysis of the money that can earn supporting the anti-systemic crowd against the others,” said Philis. “In addition, in a country where institutions work, an entrepreneur has small profit margins. In a rebel society where capitalism is unbridled, it obviously has much more to win. “
Musk’s interest in Europe can simply be havoc in its economic and industrial policy, Filis believed.
“You can see the competitors he wants to eliminate. The German automotive industry is not now at its best, but can present a challenge to Tesla. ”
If Musk was fundamental to help Trump be chosen, can it achieve the same in Europe?
Camus believes that right -wing nationalism is really working against musk in France. “Some (parties) are so nationalists that they are beginning to ask: what President Trump does is perhaps good for the United States, but is it good for us?” said.
“This is the reason why (leader of the National Right Rally) Marine Le Pen did not attend the inauguration (Trump). Because how can you go to an average French city and explain to voters in the working class that President Trump is putting tariffs on French goods, so there are a thousand jobs less for us? By no means.”
