It was an unexpected opportunity for Alice Weidel. For an hour and fifteen minutes on Thursday, January 9, the German far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) chancellery candidate chatted live with Elon Musk, American billionaire and close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, on his social media platform X, expounding her views, approximations and untruths without contradiction. This was an exceptional level of visibility for a party marginalized on the German political scene, despite its very favorable position in the polls, which give it around 20% of voting intentions in the parliamentary elections scheduled for February 23.

Musk's interest in the AfD in recent weeks has been a boon for the party, as the businessman brings exposure and a veneer of credibility, particularly in economic terms, to a disorganized and underfunded party that is regularly threatened with a ban. The AfD is also home to a fringe of elected representatives who are accustomed to making provocative and revisionist statements about the Nazis. Several of them have been convicted of inciting hatred.

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