LONDON (AP) — Freshly invested his money and energy in help Donald Trump win re-election, Elon Musk has set its sights on Europesetting off alarm bells among politicians across the continent.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX supported the far-right Alternative for Germanydemanded the release of Imprisoned British anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson and called British Prime Minister Keir Starmer an evil tyrant who should be in prison.
Many European politicians have been concerned by this attention. Musk’s feed on his social network
Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communications at Loughborough University, said Musk uses X “a bit like an old-fashioned media mogul” to promulgate his political views.
In an interview with the AP, Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communications at Loughborough University, says Elon Musk has promoted far-right candidates and issues.
“We’ve seen Musk start to align himself much more obviously with an international far-right movement,” Chadwick said. “If you look at the kind of people that Musk himself encourages on his platform… he’s increasingly starting to bring together a group of different right-wing influencers, many of whom have large followings, and present their evidence as the basis for his interventions in European Politics.
Musk has inserted himself into politics in Germany, which heads toward elections on Feb. 23 after the collapse of center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government.
On December 20, Musk wrote on X: “Only the AfD can save Germany”, a reference to Alternative for Germany party, which is under observation by the domestic intelligence agency for suspicion of extremism.
He doubled down on his support for the AfD in an article in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, saying Germany was “on the brink of economic and cultural collapse.” Later this week, Musk is expected to have a live discussion on X with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel.
Scholz’s response embodies the dilemma facing European politicians: should they ignore and let Musk’s comments go unchallenged, or engage and risk amplifying them?
Scholz said it was important to “remain calm” in the face of personal attacks, but called Musk’s involvement in German politics worrying. In his New Year’s message, Scholz clearly emphasized that Germany’s path forward “will not be decided by the owners of social networks” but by German voters.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Monday of the risks posed by unchecked power in the hands of tech billionaires and the destabilizing impact it could have on democratic institutions.
“Who could have imagined ten 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.
Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said Musk’s behavior was “troubling and far from amusing.”
“Someone cannot just use their platform, their wealth and their connections to try to dictate how governments are formed in every nation,” he told Parapolitika radio. “It’s getting more and more dangerous.”
Musk is increasingly focusing on British politics since the centre-left Labor Party was elected in July, calling Starmer an “evil” leader presiding over a “tyrannical police state”.
Musk has recently focused on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked towns in northern England several years ago, in which groups of men, largely of Pakistani woman, were tried for manipulating and abusing dozens of girls, most of them white. These cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration and Islam.
Musk accused Starmer of failing to bring the perpetrators to justice while he was director of public prosecutions in England between 2008 and 2013 – an accusation Starmer strongly denies.
“Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in British history,” Musk tweeted.
Chadwick said “there has been a hesitation on the part of the UK’s political elite to engage” with Musk’s “incredibly inflammatory remarks”. But Starmer changed tactics on Monday, condemning “lies and disinformation” and accusing British conservative politicians who echoed some of Musk’s arguments of “amplifying what the far right says.”
“I appreciate the sense of politics, the vigorous debate that we must have, but which must be based on facts and the truth, not on lies,” the Prime Minister said.
Starmer faces calls to strengthen Britain’s laws on foreign interference, and governments around the world are under pressure to leave X. The British and German governments say they have no plans to leave the platform.
Musk’s X is under investigation by European authorities who are trying to combat hate, misinformation and other toxic content on social media. The European Union has launched infringement proceedings against X under the bloc’s infringement procedure. Digital Services Actand EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said he would examine whether Musk’s live interview Thursday with the AfD’s Weidel gives inappropriate “preferential treatment” to the party during a pre-election period.
Musk, a self-styled free speech advocate, criticizes efforts to regulate social media. He compared British attempts to stamp out online misinformation through the Online Safety Act to censorship in the Soviet Union.
Musk clearly enjoys harassing mainstream politicians on social media, but Chadwick said it “remains to be seen” whether his post changes public attitudes or helps the causes he champions.
And political interventions carry risks for him. His comments are being closely watched by Tesla investors, looking for signs that he might turn off car buyers who disagree with his policies.
Tesla is already struggling in Europe, where Musk’s new e-vehicle registrations fell 13% in the first nine months of 2023, according to automotive researcher Jato Dynamics. In Germany, Tesla registrations fell by 44%.
Jato senior analyst Felipe Munoz said Musk’s outspokenness is rare and risky for the owner of a publicly traded company — although it may pay off in the end.
“Europe is moving to the right,” he said, pointing to politicians like France’s Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister.
“Look at what happened in the United States. His bet on Trump worked. He plays the same game in Europe.
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Geir Moulson in Berlin; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Raf Casert in Brussels; Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece; and Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this story.