FDP Chief Christian Lindner distances himself from Elon Musk’s election endorsement of the AfD after the tech billionaire’s surprise support for the far-right party.
Although Lindner is impressed by Musk’s entrepreneurial spirit, he stresses that this does not mean Musk has a political judgment of his own. Lindner attributes the significant impact of Musk’s endorsement to the current atmosphere of uncertainty and orientation-seeking in Germany.
He also speculates that Musk may not have written the election endorsement himself, but rather used artificial intelligence, which could explain how he remained unaware of the AfD’s nationalist and socialist leanings.
“The natural intelligence of humans is still superior when it comes to political judgments” Lindner says. “We will have to get used to the fact that such influences will be more frequent in the coming days and weeks.”
Lindner concludes that individuals must strengthen their own judgment and critical thinking, urging people to fact-check and question the motives behind information they receive. He advises against spreading misinformation and not remaining silent when others do so, as this would effectively be an endorsement of the wrong information.
Lindner’s statements mark a shift in his previous stance on Musk, as he had previously sought to draw closer to the tech mogul and even suggested “more Musk and Milei” were needed.