SAP CFO Says Company Opposes Rise of Europe’s ‘Very Far Right’
(Bloomberg) -- German software company SAP SE is concerned with the growing influence of the “very far right” in Europe and doesn’t want it in power, according to its Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam.
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“As a company that’s so reliant on global trade and has such a diverse workforce from all countries of the world, we have to stand for the values of open society,” Asam said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg News at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We would not like to see Europe slip into the arms of very far right organizations.”
Asam’s comments come as the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is neck-and-neck with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and behind the center-right CDU/CSU bloc in polls ahead of a snap election on Feb. 23. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has thrown his weight behind the party, posting that “only the AfD can save Germany” and hosting its candidate Alice Weidel for a discussion on his X social media site.
Far-right and populist parties are gaining traction across Europe, including the National Rally in France. In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has nurtured ties with Musk and US President Donald Trump, while in Romania a fringe far-right candidate remains the frontrunner for elections in May even after the country’s Constitutional Court voided a previous vote that he won.
Asam said that many people in Europe were frustrated by the current system, “and it’s not surprising that the far right sometimes seems to be a solution.”
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