BERLIN: German officials on Friday brushed off tech billionaire Elon Musk labelling Olaf Scholz a “fool” on his social media platform X after the dramatic collapse of the chancellor´s coalition government.
In a comment on Thursday above a post about the implosion of Scholz´s long-troubled coalition, the world´s richest man tweeted in German: “Olaf ist ein Narr” -- “Olaf is a fool”.
Asked about Musk´s comment, government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann took a playful dig at the US tycoon, saying that “on X, you have Narrenfreiheit”, which translates to the freedom to act like a fool.
The word refers to revellers during Germany´s traditional carnival season, which starts next week, having the freedom to act without inhibitions.
Historically, the term echoes the notion of the “jester´s privilege” -- the right of a court jester to mock those in power without being punished by the king.
Asked later about the comment, a tight-lipped Scholz simply called it “not very friendly”, adding that internet companies are “not organs of state so I did not even pay it any attention”.
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