JUST IN: Der Spiegel Reports Suspect in German Car Ramming Attack Had Sympathies with Far Right AfD Party — Which Elon Musk Just Promoted

Dörthe Hein/dpa via AP

German news outlet Der Spiegel reported on Saturday that the suspect in a car ramming attack at a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg was a fan of the far-right party AfD, as well as Elon Musk and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

An official motive for the attack is still to be found. CNN reported on Saturday that Dr. Horst Nopens, Head of the Magdeburg Public Prosecutor’s office, said the suspect in custody may have been dissatisfied with Germany’s treatment of Saudi refugees. The suspect in custody is a Saudi man.

According to Reuters, five were killed in the attack and more than 200 were injured.

Der Spiegel reported on the suspect’s social media accounts on Saturday, revealing him to be a possible follower of AfD, a far-right party in Germany that X owner Elon Musk has been vocally and controversially praising in the United States.

According to Der Spiegel:

The alleged perpetrator A. is obviously a fan of the AfD, as revealed by an analysis of several of his social media accounts by SPIEGEL. Eight years ago, he wrote on Twitter that he wanted to start a project together with the AfD: an academy for ex-Muslims. When another user asked why he was planning to do this with the AfD, he replied: »Who else is fighting Islam in Germany?« He obviously held this opinion until the end. This June, he retweeted party leader Alice Weidel, writing with typos: »The left are crazy. We need the AfD to protect the police from them.

The outlet also reported the suspect in custody praised Musk and Jones.

Taleb A. apparently shared the resentment of conspiracy ideologists and agitators such as the US podcaster Alex Jones or the British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson. The entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has increasingly openly expressed his sympathies for right-wing parties, was also one of his role models: “If you listen to someone like Tommy Robinson or even Elon Musk, and even if you are ignorant of the process of Islamization, you will think that they are both conspiracy theorists,” said A. in an interview. “But I can say from experience that everything Robinson says, what Musk says, what Alex Jones says, or anyone who is described by the mainstream media as a radical or right-wing extremist – they are telling the truth.”

Musk has received backlash for praising the AfD, but he doubled down on that support in a Saturday post to X, calling the far-right party the only “hope” for Germany.

“The traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people,” he wrote. “AfD is the only hope for Germany.”