Musk tested the boundaries of foreign election interference, hosting AfD co-leader Alice Weidel for a livestream interview on X.

The publicity was a potential boon for AfD, which has been frozen out of mainstream politics, in part, because its leaders have downplayed Nazi atrocities.

AfD is also focused on ending Germany's policy of atonement for World War Two crimes. Its leading candidate for the European Parliament election resigned from the party in May amid public outcry, after declaring that members of the SS,