Alice Weidel on Elon Musk

Alice Weidel, the co-chairwoman of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), has been the subject of supportive attention from the tech billionaire Elon Musk. This support manifested through public conversation, guest articles, and explicit endorsements on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Specifically, the billionaire stated that only the AfD could save Germany and later retweeted a post from Weidel thanking him for a guest article in Die Welt, which directly preceded large jumps in her post views and follower count.

Analysis of Weidel's social media performance indicates that her spikes in reach on X, including sharp increases in post views and follower acquisition, often coincided with Musk's expressions of sympathy. While individual posts by her received significantly more views than those of other German politicians following these interactions, the effect appears largely limited to the X platform itself. The AfD candidate, who presents a contradictory persona as a nationalist living in Switzerland and railing against elites, was endorsed live at her campaign launch by the tech billionaire.