Germany's SPD calls for Antitrust Act to limit Elon Musk's influence

By Michael Nienaber

 

A senior lawmaker from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats railed against Elon Musk’s interference in German politics and called for a new antitrust act to constrain his influence in the corporate world.

 

“Elon Musk’s renewed provocations are more than irritating,” said Dirk Wiese, the deputy caucus leader of the Social Democratic Party in Germany’s Bundestag. “It’s high time to push ahead with a modern version of the Sherman Antitrust Act,” he added, referring to the 1890 US law that banned monopolistic business practices.

 

A modern-day version would essentially lead to a break-up of Musk’s increasingly “monopolistic” conglomerate of companies, Wiese told Bloomberg News on Sunday. 

 

While the comments will likely intensify the war of words with the world’s richest person, it’s unclear whether regulators in the US, where Musk’s businesses are headquartered, will agree with his proposal.   

 

Musk, whose companies span electric car maker Tesla Inc., SpaceX, social media platform X and tunneling startup Boring Co., has waded into German politics twice in recent days on X. In a reply to another user following Friday’s attack on a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, Musk disparaged Scholz as an “incompetent fool” and said he should resign immediately.

 

The suspect in the attack has been detained on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and assault. The 50-year-old doctor of Saudi Arabian origin who works in the region and was identified by police as Taleb A. is accused of driving a car through the market, killing a nine-year-old child and four women. More than 200 were hurt in the incident, which has sparked fierce debate about security and finger-pointing in the aftermath.

 

In a separate post prior to the incident, Musk voiced support for the German far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, writing: “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Several media reports have since suggested the suspect openly sympathized with AfD. 

 

The billionaire, a key adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, hasn’t held back in expressing his contempt for Scholz, labeling him a “fool” last month after the collapse of Germany’s three-way coalition.

 

Scholz’s government has been under pressure to boost security nationwide after several violent attacks in recent months, including a stabbing in the city of Solingen in August that left three people dead and eight wounded. 

 

Polls suggest that public frustration with its migration and asylum policies has helped fuel a recent surge in support for far-right and far-left parties, including for the AfD.

 

Musk’s outbursts come just two months before Germans go to the polls in a snap election in February that will see Scholz go up against Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz and AfD candidate Alice Weidel.

 

Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance leads with support at around 32%, the AfD is second with 19% and the SPD third at 15.9%, according to the latest Bloomberg polling average.

 

Scholz himself took a swipe at Musk on Friday over his political judgment.

 

“We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain good political advice.”