Catherine Field: Europe Correspondent on Elon Musk weighing in on German politics

Elon Musk has continued to weigh into German politics ahead of next month's election. 

The billionaire has made a video appearance at a rally for far-right party Alternative for Germany. 

Musk has previously written an op-ed supporting the party, and hosted its leader Alice Weidel in an interview on X. 

Europe Correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that it looks as if Musk is having an effect, primarily due to his actions being rebroadcast on his X, which has a far greater reach than German mainstream media. 

She says that there has been an acceptance among the mainstream parties that far right votes wouldn’t be accepted to pass legislation, but the leader of the centre-right CDU said he was prepared to accept far-right support in his crackdown on migrants.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And two France, we go Catherine, very good morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
You, Good morning Mike, welcome back.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
And a happy new year to you. Now Germany, I'm
assuming Schultz has gone Musks in play, the afdre in play.
Is he broadly every time he talks about it publicly
having an effect or not.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
It would seem there are concerns that he has have
had an effect. I mean, just over the weekend, even
though we saw those huge rallies thirty five thousand people
in Berlin rallying against Musk getting involved in the elections,
also rallies and Cologne. At the same time, we then
saw Musk being live streamed into an AfD far right

(00:38):
rally campaign headquarters opening in the eastern German city of Halla.
So it looks as though he could be having an effect.
And they think that effect comes from the fact that
a lot of what he's doing gets rebroadcast on his
social media network, which of course has a far greater
reach than any of the German tea in radio stations

(01:01):
and of course the newspapers. So when we look at
the sort of effect he might be having, I think
what it could be like over the weekend, the leader
of the Center right CDU in Germany, which has looks
as though it will get the major share or the
largest share of the vote next month's elections. He actually
said that he was prepared to accept far right support

(01:24):
as part of a campaign that he wants to put
in place to corrack down our migrants. Now this has
really got if I'm worried, because there had been the
sort of firewall accord on Sunitaire. If you like that,
there'll be no acceptance of any far right votes to
pass legislation and parliament. But Mantt's head of the CDU says, look,
the Electric electorate really wants some sort of new policy,

(01:47):
new laws on migration, and he said that the Electric
would be happy if he did this.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
You know, that's that's sort of answer Money's question, because
you look at the Lopeine scenario in your country and
you know it's all very well to do well in
an election, but if no one will to work with you,
then Holland was another example, of course, so it's possible
that the AfD are going to have some real influence.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Your suggested, well, let's see you again. Germany is one
of these countries where coalitions are all built and discussed
and we might not have a government in Germany until May,
but certainly they do seem to be doing well at
the moment there is scheduled to get what twenty percent
of the vote. Even if they don't get the numbers
in parliament, they will be a force that has to

(02:30):
be listened to because they just seem to have tapped
into that stream of consciousness about mixing up the economy,
the economic downturn and the cost of the country of
looking after all these migrants that have been coming into
the country.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Now, I was mentioning Darbos a moment ago, so Trump
speaking and watching Trump last week speak to the people
at Darbos. He's talking about NATO as well, two percent
versus five percent and people paying their way and come
and build in America. And if you want to build,
will give you the lowest taxes. If you don't, will
terrify you to death. What are you makable?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, there's two obviously very different strengths of thought going
on in Europe. On the one something age you've got
that chart and stick approach, Mike, You've got people like
the French Prime Minister Panswa Bayu saying watch out. The
US is now going for sort of power and domination
along the lines that Russia and China have been going

(03:22):
on talking about how America is using this monetary offensive
to really take over parts of European economy and to
force changes in the way that Europe does business. So
we're also seeing at the same time the sort of
the good cop where we've seen the EU vanderline saying
that the EU should be ready to engage with Trump,

(03:45):
should seek common interest, be ready to negotiate, but protect
Europe's interests. So I think at the moment where they're
all feeling around trying to play good cop, bad cop
and not sure where it's all going to end up.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
All right, quick word on NIS. So there are another
one after Venus, of course, So we've got the cruise ships.
Is there a general what's the vibe on cruise ships?
You know, one hand, we in this country love them
because there are half billion dollar industry, but then we
hate them because they're environmental problems. And of course you've
got places like Venison. Now, Niece, Well, what.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
The Mayor of News has said is from this year on,
only these smaller ships will be alloweder and that's any
of those under one hundred and ninety meters long, and
those less than nine hundred passengers. What he really wants, Mike,
are these smaller ultra luxury ships, the ones that come
in and really spend money. When you look at the figures,
cruise ship passengers say, for example, when they come ashore

(04:36):
in Marseille, they spend around one hundred and five New
Zealand dollars a day. Non cruise ship passengers spend around
two hundred and forty New Zealand dollars a day. So
what they're saying is, listen, the people who are on
cruise ships, they go back to the ship to have dinner,
to have their drinks because they're in an all inclusive package.
Whereas if you don't come on a cruise ship, if

(04:56):
you'd Rock Harph stayed at a hotel, you go to a
local restaurant, then you're actually going to be putting money
into the local economy.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Good stuff. I've missed the sound of you, Voyce Catherine
will catch up again next Tuesday. Precid very much kept
in the field in France each and every Tuesday morning.
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