Friedrich Merz, the man in the running for Germany’s next chancellor, has condemned Elon Musk over an opinion piece in which he praised the far-right Alternative for Germany party, calling it “arrogant and arrogant.”

“I cannot remember a similar case of interference in the election campaign of a friendly country in the history of Western democracies,” Merz told the Funke media group on Sunday.

Merz’s statements come after the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag published an article written by Musk describing it Alternative to Germany (AfD) as Germany’s “last spark of hope.”

The article was widely criticized by members of parliament from across the political spectrum as a clear example of interference in German democratic processes less than two months before snap elections.

Opinion polls show that the Alternative for Germany party is in second place behind Merz’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, while the Social Democratic Party, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is in third place.

Germany’s main parties are critical of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has called for mass deportations of people with migrant backgrounds and wants Germany to leave the European Union. German domestic intelligence classified large parts of the party as extremists and placed them under surveillance.

Saskia Eskin, co-leader of the Social Democratic Party, was strongly critical Musk condition. “Our democracy is capable of defending itself and is not for sale,” she told Reuters.

“Everyone who tries to influence our elections from the outside, and everyone who supports an anti-democratic and misanthropic party like the AfD. . . “We should expect fierce resistance from us,” she said.

Matthias Mersch, secretary general of the Social Democratic Party, also attacked Axel Springer, the media group that owns Welt am Sonntag, saying it was “shameful and dangerous” that the company had provided Musk with a campaign platform for the AfD.

Andreas Audretsch, a senior Green Party MP leading the party’s election campaign, also criticized Musk’s article.

“It harms our democracy when Mr. Musk, the Chinese state, or Moscow troll factories subvert our democratic discourse,” he said.

Eva-Marie Coghill, comments editor at Welt magazine, announced over the weekend that she had resigned, citing outrage over the decision to publish Musk’s article in the newspaper’s newsroom.

“Journalism lives on independence and credibility, while Die Welt lives on its reputation,” says Mika Poister, president of the German Journalists’ Association. “It’s all thrown into the trash, with a great clank.”

In his article, Musk, a close advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump, said… A friend of Axel Springer CEO Matthias DöpfnerHe praised the AfD’s policies of market liberalization, tax cuts, and red tape reduction, as well as its opposition to immigration.

He also denied the idea that the party was “far-right,” pointing out that its co-leader, Alice Weidel, was in a same-sex relationship with a Sri Lankan woman. “Does this sound like Hitler to you? Please!” books.

Merz said Musk “ignored” some important points in his article, saying he would never have been able to build his own Tesla factory in the eastern German state of Brandenburg with the Alternative for Germany party. He said that it was the far-right party that “showed the strongest opposition to the factory.”

He also noted that any Brexit-style withdrawal, as called for by the AfD, would cause significant damage to the entire German economy, “not just the car industry.”

“You can identify these relationships quite easily provided you don’t derive all your information from your social media channels,” Mears said.

The Alternative for Germany party is the latest far-right European organization to win Musk’s support.

Nigel Farage recently suggested that Musk could donate to Reform UK, telling the BBC that his party was in “ongoing negotiations” with the tech mogul after the pair met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Musk also waded into the row between Farage and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, placing an alert to fact-check Badenoch’s tweets in which she claimed the UK Reform Foundation had falsified its membership numbers.

Earlier this year, Musk praised far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling her “a more beautiful person on the inside than she is on the outside” and “authentic, honest and thoughtful.” She responded in kind by praising his “precious genius.”

Insiders at Axel Springer, which also owns Politico, rejected the claim that, by publishing Musk’s article, they were providing a platform for the billionaire and the far right.

One of them said: “He is the owner of Twitter, and with one tweet he can reach 200 million people.” “Who is the world to give him a platform? He is a platform. It is better to post this on our platform where we can protect it and surround it with our own opinions.”