Tesla tycoon Elon Musk’s endorsement of Alternative for Germany (AfD) could legitimise the far-Right party among business people and ordinary voters, easing its eventual path to power, a member of the movement has said.

Mega-billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social media site X, plans to hold an online audio discussion on the platform with the leader of a far right German party, amplifying the party’s fascist and neo-Nazi ideology.

X owner Elon Musk posted on the site: "Only the AfD can save Germany." Following the post, which had more than 50 million views at the time

Elon Musk backed Germany’s far-right Alternative for Deutschland party, known as the AfD, in an opinion piece published in a German newspaper on Saturday, wading deeper into international politics as the billionaire has become a fixture in Trump’s orbit.

Other parties vying to win the upcoming election also criticized the tech billionaire after he doubled down on his support for the far-right AfD party in a weekend op-ed.

The German government accused U.S. billionaire Elon Musk on Monday of trying to influence its election due in February with articles supporting the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, even though it suggested they amounted to "nonsense".

In May, France’s far-right party led by Marine Le Pen split from the AfD in its European Parliament coalition after the German party’s top candidate, Maximilian Krah, said that a person was “not automatically a criminal” just because they had been a member of the SS, Adolph Hitler’s paramilitary organization.

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor in protest.

Elon Musk’s endorsement of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) caused controversy in Germany weeks ahead of their federal elections. Where else has Musk spoken out about politics? View on euro