This is more than a metaphor, as Elon Musk and AfD leader Alice Weidel talked about space colonization for quite a while at the end of their 73-minute discussion yesterday. German mainstream tv news Friday morning claimed that there were 200,000 viewers online. But as of this writing, there have been at least 7 million views. The EU deployed 150 algorithm guardians to check whether EU rules were violated during the interview. After the interview, a Bundestag office announced they are investigating whether the interview can be considered illegal election financing. Stern magazine has a cover image of Putin and Musk, with the title “Attack on Our Election.”
(Disclaimer: this is a paraphrasis of the conversation and might contain inaccuracies)
Weidel was able to present the AfD views on energy, immigration, bureaucracy and foreign policy. She thanked Musk for the rare free speech opportunity, which she said is systematically denied to her party in Germany. She blasted Merkel as the first Green chancellor, with her failed energy policy, and the traffic light government making it worse. She exposed the intermittent, land-consuming character of renewables and called for reintroduction of nuclear energy. Musk backed that and the two of them described, without using that term, its advantage in terms of energy flux density. Merkel also opened the gates to illegal immigration, Weidel said.
In Ukraine, she hopes that Trump can put an end to the useless war and she asked Musk whether he could indicate how Trump would do it. Musk signalled that it was a decision for Trump to make. Remarkably, on Israel and Palestine: after pronouncing the ritual oath of support to Israel, Jews abroad threatened by antisemitism etc., Musk said three things must be done: 1. destroy those who want to destroy Israel; 2. educate Palestinians not to hate Israel; 3. bring prosperity to Palestine. Weidel agreed. Musk quoted the saying: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Forgiveness is key to peace. Weidel agreed to that.
As Musk asked about Nazi allegations against the AfD, Weidel thanked for the question and said that the AfD is the opposite of Nazism. The Nazis were socialists (national socialists) and antisemitic, and nationalized the economy she said. The AfD is libertarian, pro-Israel and wants to reduce government.
As mentioned at the beginning, in the end of the interview Weidel asked Musk about his Mars plans and Musk explained that this is not just about sending a human mission, but to achieve the goal of creating a self-subsisting colony, in the context of a strategy to ensure survival to human civilization. The Earth could be hit by a catastrophe as it has occurred in the past, by astronomical causes or even by nuclear war, with the extinction of human life on the planet. By establishing a human colony outside of the Earth, we can better ensure the survival of our species. Maybe in the future, people from Mars could even save people on Earth from self-induced troubles, as America has done with Europe in the past.
In general, despite her shortcomings, Weidel appeared as quite pragmatic and “normal,” and may have achieved her goal.
Established parties fear that through Musk, the AfD will be seen as legitimized by a section of voters who otherwise fear its “radical” positions as narrated by the media. The AfD will never fill the gap with the frontrunner CDU/CSU, but it might gain a margin large enough as to prevent any coalition without the AfD. This is an uphill race, though.
Currently, opinion polls give a 47-49% of the votes to a CDU/CSU/SPD coalition, which would be enough to achieve a majority in the Bundestag. The AfD is given at 19-21.5%. This is not enough to prevent the above coalition, especially if none of the three parties FDP, Linke and BSW fail to reach the 5% hurdle.
Opinion polls, however, are more part of a narrative to manipulate elections rather than a real barometer. The German liberal establishment is ready to use all means, including a “Rumanian way” of fixing the result, as some see reflected in a passage in President Steinmeier’s speech on Dec. 27.
