Scholz dismisses Musk's attacks but criticizes AfD endorsement, citing extremism and pro-Putin links

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he's staying “cool” about Elon Musk's critical personal comments. Still, he worries that the US billionaire is trying to get involved in a general election by endorsing the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Scholz reacted after Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, called the chancellor a “fool” after his coalition government collapsed in November. He later backed the AfD in an opinion piece he wrote for a major German newspaper.

Scholz, head of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), said in comments published Saturday by the German magazine Stern that there is “nothing new” in criticism by “rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not hold back with their opinions.”

“You have to stay cool,” Scholz told Stern.

“I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk is supporting a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing extremist, which preaches rapprochement with Putin’s Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations,” Scholz said.

The AfD is monitored by Germany’s domestic intelligence service on suspicion of being a right-wing extremist and has already been recognized as such in some individual German states.

Germany will hold an early parliamentary election on February 23 after Scholz’s thee-party coalition collapsed in November in a dispute over how to revitalize the country’s stagnant economy.

The vice chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, also warned Musk against interfering in German politics.

“Hands off our democracy, Mr. Musk!” Habeck said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine.

“The combination of enormous wealth, control over information and networks, the use of artificial intelligence and