Mathias Döpfner, Germany’s Trump-praising media mogul, encouraged Elon Musk to openly back the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, according to a report.

Mr Musk wrote that “Only the AfD can save Germany” on social media last week before calling the far-Right party Germany’s “last spark of hope” in a controversial article published in the Die Welt newspaper, a move that led to the resignation of its opinion editor.

Mr Döpfner, the chief executive and part-owner of Die Welt’s publisher Axel Springer, asked Mr Musk to write the social media post shortly before Christmas and facilitated the article, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported.

Open support for the hard-Right or far-Right is a taboo in post-war Germany, with most media houses refusing to give AfD politicians column inches.

Die Welt however invited Alice Weidel, the AfD leader, and the more controversial AfD state leader Björn Höck – who a court ruled could legally be called a fascist – to take part in broadcast debates in Autumn.

Pressure to break the taboo has also increased since the AfD, which is currently polling at around 19 per cent, overtook Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats to become Germany’s second-strongest party in mid-2023.