German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for unity in his New Year's address, and urged voters not to be influenced by "owners of social media channels".
The chancellor delivers a speech to the nation each year on New Year's Eve looking at events from the past year, and offering some encouragement for what is to come. This one could be the last one for Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, as he is expected to be beaten by Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats in the snap election scheduled for February.
The speech is pre-recorded for television and made available to the press ahead of its broadcast on Tuesday.
About the coming election, Scholz said German citizens alone will decide "where Germany goes from here." He added, "it will not be decided by the owners of social media channels."
These comments appear to be an explicit counter to comments by Elon Musk, CEO of social media platform X, who had sparked contentious debate twice in recent weeks - first for writing, "Only the AfD can save Germany" and then for doubling down with a longer endorsement of the far-right party in an op-ed published by Die Welt.
In his speech Scholz refrained from mentioning Musk, his platform or his comments outright. Instead he suggested the fate of Germany should be decided by "the vast majority of reasonable and decent people”.
In the spirit of making a New Year's Eve wish, Scholz said, "What I wish for is that we will not let ourselves be played off each other.”
Overall the chancellor's speech could be summed up as a call for unity and confidence for 2025.
"Strength comes from cohesion. And we are a country that sticks together..."
He urges people in Germany to draw strength from this unity to overcome current challenges - among them Russia's war on Ukraine, high cost of living, and a weakening economic outlook.
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