Agency Report –
Berlin – Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s endorsement of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has had a positive impact on the party’s standing ahead of the German election on February 23, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
The survey, conducted by the YouGov research institute on behalf of dpa, found that 59% of respondents believe Musk’s endorsement has benefited the AfD, while only 4% think it has hurt the party. Meanwhile, 24% saw no effect, and 13% were unsure.
Musk, a close adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump and a major political donor, recently stirred controversy when he threw his support behind the AfD on his platform X and later in an opinion piece for Die Welt newspaper.
However, the survey also suggests that many people don’t expect Musk’s comments on his platform X to have a significant effect on the upcoming election campaign.
Half of those surveyed (50%) believe Musk’s influence will be minimal, with 13% stating it will have no impact at all. In contrast, 27% think his influence will be substantial.
The survey, which interviewed 2,246 people aged 18 and over between January 3 and 6, has a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 2.07 percentage points.
A majority of respondents, 68%, doubted Musk’s ability to assess Germany’s political situation, while only 21% believed he could.
Regarding foreign influence in domestic politics, 63% of participants said they would support at least partial regulation of social media to prevent such interference. However, a majority of AfD supporters (58%) opposed the idea.
Musk is set to hold a live online conversation on Thursday with Alice Weidel, the top election candidate for the AfD.
The YouGov poll shows the AfD in second place at 21%, trailing the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) combined with its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union (CSU), sitting at 29%.
