Volkswacht Bodensee - German leaders hit back at Musk's support for far right

Without naming Musk directly, Scholz said in a New Year's Eve speech set to be broadcast on television on Tuesday evening that "what will happen in Germany will be decided by you, the citizens, not the owners of social media".

Scholz is facing an uphill battle ahead of early elections on February 23 prompted by the collapse of his unruly centre-left coalition last month.

Musk has repeatedly attacked Scholz, branding him a "fool" and calling for his resignation after a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg.

The world's richest man, who owns the X platform and runs Tesla and SpaceX, has also called the AfD the only party that can "save Germany". Last week, he wrote an opinion piece to the same effect in German newspaper Welt, prompting the resignation of the conservative title's opinion editor.

Scholz said that "in our debates one can sometimes get the impression that the most extreme opinions get the greatest attention".

"But it's not those who shout loudest who will decide Germany's future but the broad majority of sensible and respectable people," he added.

In his own New Year's speech, Green Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said that Musk wanted to "strengthen those who weaken Europe" to suit his own business interests.

"A weak Europe is in the interests of those for whom regulation represents an unreasonable limit on their power," Habeck said.

Musk, who is set to become US President-elect Donald Trump's "efficiency czar", meanwhile continued his broadsides against Germany's leaders.

His latest target is German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whom he branded "an anti-democratic tyrant" in a post on X early on Tuesday.

Minutes later he posted that "the AfD is going to win an epic victory".

Current polling averages put the AfD in second place on 19 percent, behind the main opposition CDU/CSU on 32 percent.

Scholz's Social Democrats currently look set for their worst-ever result on 16 percent, while the Greens are on 13 percent.

All other mainstream parties have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD.

A.Kunz--VB