Musk and Weidel: False statements from migration to National Socialism | EUROtoday

Multi-billionaire Musk and AfD candidate for chancellor Weidel talked for greater than an hour. Weidel made false claims, particularly when it got here to the matters of migration and the financial system – and tried historic revisionism.

Right originally of the dialog with AfD high candidate Alice Weidel on his Platform X, the primary false assertion from Elon Musk adopted. He offered Weidel because the at present main and hottest candidate with a view to the federal election in Germany. Neither her social gathering nor she herself is on the high of the polls. In the youngest ARD GermanyPattern The Union of CDU and CSU is on the high with 31 %, the AfD is in second place with round 20 %.

When it involves satisfaction with the candidates for chancellor, Weidel can also be not on the high, however solely in fifth place. The high candidates from the opposite events, Robert Habeck from the Greens, Friedrich Merz from the CDU, Christian Lindner from the FDP and Sarah Wagenknecht from the BSW all have higher satisfaction rankings.

False statements about migration

One of the central matters within the dialog was migration. With regard to the asylum disaster in 2015, Weidel falsely claimed that then-Chancellor Angela Merkel had pushed via the opening of German borders to unlawful immigration. But that is not true.

Because the borders in Germany with different nations weren’t closed in any respect on the time. After all, stationary border controls within the so-called Schengen space had lengthy since been abolished. Kolja Schwartz from the ARD authorized editorial crew subsequently already said in April 2016: The formulation that Merkel had opened the borders was “fundamentally wrong because there have been no closed borders within the so-called Schengen area for years. So no borders could be opened in 2015.”

Weidel additionally claimed that there was an exploding crime charge in Germany. That too is at the least deceptive. According to the police crime statistics (PKS), there was a rise to virtually six million instances in 2023, a very good 5 % greater than within the earlier 12 months. However, the numbers in 2015 and 2016, for instance, had been considerably larger. In addition, specialists emphasize that when deciphering the PKS, elements reminiscent of a probably larger willingness to report the matter should even be taken under consideration.

Theft not authorized in California

Musk additionally made a false declare in reference to the difficulty of migration. He mentioned that theft is just about authorized within the US state of California if the worth of the stolen items is lower than $1,000. However, that’s not true. California carried out a prison justice reform in 2014, in accordance with which the theft of products value $950 or much less can solely be categorised as a misdemeanor and now not against the law.

However, that does not imply that stealing items valued at $950 or much less is not nonetheless unlawful. Anyone caught can face fines and as much as six months in jail. According to the fact-checking editorial crew of Deutsche Welle, the background to the prison justice reform was an try to cut back overcrowding in California’s prisons.

Hitler was not a communist

Musk and Weidel briefly touched on the subject of the corona pandemic. With regard to protecting masks throughout the pandemic, Weidel spoke of “bluff and fraud”. Several research present that carrying masks can scale back the chance of corona an infection.

Based on statements about freedom of speech, Weidel requested Musk: “Do you know what the first thing Adolf Hitler did? He turned off freedom of speech.” Musk agreed together with her. Weidel claimed that Hitler was not “right-wing” however a “communist” who described himself as a “socialist.”

That’s mistaken. History professor Werner Suppanz from the University of Graz answered the query of whether or not Nazis had been socialists clearly to the “Standard”: “Definitely not.” Hitler himself declared in 1928 that his National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) was not socialist.

At its core, the National Socialist worldview relies on the unequal worth of individuals, which in the end led to the Holocaust. The Nazis had a racial and organic mind-set that, in accordance with Suppanz, “can clearly be located on the right.” In distinction, left-wing ideologies reminiscent of socialism and communism pursued a really perfect of equality.

Communists had been persecuted and murdered beneath National Socialism. In reality, earlier than the Nazis got here to energy, there was a wing inside the social gathering that claimed to be anti-capitalist and revolutionary, however this was primarily meant to win over staff. In 1934, Hitler had the main determine of this wing, Gregor Strasser, in addition to different opponents inside the social gathering killed.

AfD one right-wing extremist Suspected case

Weidel additionally claimed that the AfD is a “libertarian and conservative party” that’s continuously misclassified. However, the AfD is noticed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist case. Three regional associations are already thought-about to be “safely right-wing extremist”: Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Individual social gathering officers additionally repeatedly appeal to consideration via right-wing extremist statements. For instance, the Thuringian AfD chief Björn Höcke was convicted twice in 2024 for utilizing a Nazi slogan.

A reassessment of the complete social gathering was deliberate for the tip of 2024, however was postponed because of the early federal election. The purpose for that is the so-called equal alternatives between the events. The nearer a choice on the classification of a celebration involves the date of a federal election, the extra possible it’s to concern a violation of the events’ equal alternatives.

“A danger to Jewish life in Germany!”

Weidel additionally emphasised a number of occasions within the dialog that the AfD is the one social gathering in Germany that protects Jews in Germany. All different events would have executed the alternative by letting hundreds of thousands of individuals into the nation.

Numerous representatives of the Jewish neighborhood in Germany, together with the Central Council of Jews, see this basically otherwise. In a “joint statement against the AfD” it says: “The AfD is a party in which hatred of Jews and relativization up to and including the denial of the Shoah have a home.” The AfD is “a danger to Jewish life in Germany!” and “in no way represents the interests of the Jewish community.” Rather, it’s “a racist and anti-Semitic party!”

In an evaluation of anti-Semitism within the AfD, the American Jewish Committee Berlin additionally involves the conclusion that anti-Semitism is a part of the “programmatic core” of the AfD. However, this isn’t at all times expressed explicitly. The Heinrich Böll Foundation states in an evaluation that anti-Semitism is “firmly anchored in the thinking of many AfD members”. Anti-Semitic codes and conspiracy narratives, reminiscent of an alleged international conspiracy, are repeatedly talked about by AfD politicians.

This was additionally the case in a dialog with Elon Musk. The names George Soros and Bill Gates had been talked about – two names which might be repeatedly talked about in reference to the “Great Reset” or an alleged “New World Order”.

Italy additionally acquired out of nuclear power

There had been additionally a number of false claims in regards to the financial system. Weidel mentioned that Germany was the one industrial nation that had deserted nuclear power. Italy had already shut down all current nuclear energy crops by 1990 after the bulk there voted to part out nuclear energy because of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Other industrialized nations reminiscent of Belgium and Spain have at the least deliberate to part out nuclear power.

Weidel additionally claimed that nuclear power is totally freed from the greenhouse fuel CO2. That’s not true both. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), nuclear power has low emissions of CO2 equivalents in comparison with different power manufacturing strategies at round 66 grams per kilowatt hour – however nuclear energy is just not fully freed from emissions.

For comparability: lignite-fired energy crops emit round 1,150 grams of CO2 equivalents per kilowatt hour, whereas wind power emits 17.7 grams, in accordance with the Federal Environment Agency.

Germany would not have the very best Tax burden

Weidel additional claimed that Germany has the very best taxes of all OECD nations. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a world group with a complete of 38 member states.

According to the OECD, Germany has the second highest tax burden of all OECD nations in three instances, with a complete of eight totally different family sorts; in any other case there are much more nations forward of it. In relation to home product, Germany was in twelfth place by way of tax charge in 2023.