"Chancellor Olaf Scholz used his New Year's address on Tuesday (December 31) to allude to a recent stand-off with US billionaire Elon Musk, who has endorsed the AfD and called for Scholz to resign in the wake of a deadly attack in Magdeburg.
Germans will head to the polls in a parliamentary election on Feb. 23 after a fractious Scholz-led coalition government comprising his Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP ended in collapse.
The future of Germany "will not be decided by the owners of social media channels," Scholz said in the address.
Last week, Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, criticised X explicitly and Musk indirectly in a short speech announcing his formal decision to dissolve parliament and call the election on 23 February."