Elon Musk blasted by German Chancellor in New Year address for election involvement

Elon Musk has been criticised by the German Chancellor for interfering with the country's upcoming parliamentary elections.

In a New Year address, while Olaf Scholz did not directly name Musk, he referred to the X / Twitter owner's attempts to influence the outcome of the election on 23 February, reports Huffington Post.

It comes after the German government itself criticised Musk for attempting to influence voters.

Scholz said: "Where Germany goes from here will be decided by you - the citizens. It will not be decided by the owners of social media channels.

"In our debates, one can be forgiven for sometimes thinking the more extreme an opinion is, the more attention it will garner.

"But it won't be the person who yells loudest who will decide where Germany goes from here. Rather, that will be up to the vast majority of reasonable and decent people."

This comes after Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany party in a column for major German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

In his translated comments, Musk penned: "The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country."

Musk reportedly claims he has an interest in German politics because of "significant investments" in the country and drew widespread criticism for his comments.

Eva Marie Kogel, Welt am Sonntag's opinions editor, resigned over it.

Even the German government itself has accused Musk of trying to influence the results of the election.

Spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said in a briefing: "It is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election.

"After all, freedom of opinion also covers the greatest nonsense."

Ouch.

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