Tech billionaire Elon Musk is facing widespread criticism in European capitals as he attempts to extend his recent political success across the Atlantic Ocean.
The leaders of four European countries – France, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom – denounced his influence in separate statements on Monday, warning that Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, should not get involved in the politics of their country.
Musk, the world’s richest person and a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, has lashed out on social media against various world leaders, posting relentlessly on his social media app, influence he had on American politics. last year. On numerous occasions, Musk has supported far-right candidates in various European countries through his social media posts.
Musk’s message proved divisive, and resentment appeared to boil over Monday among the leaders of some of Europe’s largest and most powerful countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron, without naming Musk, attacked him during a speech in Paris on foreign policy.
“Who could have imagined, 10 years ago, that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would directly intervene in elections, including in Germany?” Macron said, according to the Associated Press, referring to Musk’s support for a far-right German political party.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government criticized Musk by name and predicted that his social media posts would not work with the public.
“Normal people, sensible people, honest people are by far the majority in this country,” a government spokesperson said, according to national broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
“We act as if Mr. Musk’s statements… could influence a country of 84 million people with untruths, half-truths or expressions of opinion. That’s simply not the case,” he said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was asked about Musk during a press conference about child sexual abuse cases. Musk accused Starmer of not doing enough to stop abuse when he was prosecutor — an accusation that Starmer, without naming Musk, dismissed as a self-promoting lie.
“Those who spread lies and disinformation as far and wide as possible do not care about the victims. They are interested in themselves,” he said, according to Sky News. Starmer said these people felt “a vicarious thrill from street violence”.
And although Norway has been a crucial testing ground for Tesla for a decade, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre denounced Musk’s political influence in an interview on Monday.
“I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and enormous economic resources would get so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries,” he told public broadcaster NRK, according to Reuters .
“This is not how things should be between democracies and their allies,” he said.
It was unclear whether the four governments coordinated their statements, but the fact that their comments came within hours of each other presented a united front against Musk.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment on these statements. In articles published Monday on X, he welcomed the influence he had at least on online debates. He sought responses to a poll asking whether “America should free the British people from their tyrannical government.” He promoted a possible internet services deal between SpaceX and the Italian government, led by far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. And he celebrated the resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, another object of Musk’s ire online in recent weeks. He also speculated about the possibility of Greenland becoming part of the United States.
Musk, a naturalized US citizen born and raised in South Africa, has a long history of offering political analyzes on X, including a series of posts over the past two years predicting civil war in Europe – statements that have baffled experts.
Musk spent more than $250 million last year to boost the Trump campaign and other Republican candidates in the United States, and he turned X into an echo chamber for pro-Trump opinions and accounts.
Since the election, Musk has taken on various roles for Trump, including that of a sort of traveling international envoy. He traveled with Trump to Paris last month for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in November, according to the New York Times, and briefly participated in a call telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Wall Street Journal, and he had dinner in 2023 with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other tech CEOs in San Francisco.
Musk is also co-head of a Trump commission called the Department of Government Effectiveness, an advisory body expected to make wide-ranging recommendations on spending cuts and deregulation.
nbcnews