A few days before the inauguration of Donald Trump, the owner of X, Elon Musk, is increasing his provocations against European leaders. Starting with the Labor government of Keir Starmer in the United Kingdom, where the American billionaire resurfaced a vast serial rape scandal. In Germany, Elon Musk has repeatedly shown his support for the radical far-right party, the AfD. Decryption.
The time when European leaders fought to win the favor of the richest man in the world now seems far away. The beginning of January 2025 was marked by the multiplication of ever more vehement diatribes against Elon Musk, who has initiated, in recent weeks, a real offensive in Europe. “Ten years ago, if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new reactionary international and intervene directly in the elections […] Who would have imagined it? »thus accused Emmanuel Macron, this Monday, January 6, during a speech to the French ambassadors.
No need to name it directly. His interlocutors knew perfectly well to whom the head of state was referring. Because his comments come the day after a declaration by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, having condemned, on January 4, the “erratic statements” from the Tesla owner. To understand these successive attacks, let's go back a few days. A few weeks before the federal elections in Germany at the end of December, Elon Musk openly supported the AfD, the radical far-right party.
Shown support from the AfD
“Only the AfD can save Germany”the owner of X then said on his social network, a few days before Christmas. A great gift for the party, already credited with 20% in the polls – ten points behind the conservative opposition. At the same time, in an article published in the daily Die Welt, the American billionaire also maintained that the AfD constituted “the glimmer of hope for this country”praising, among other things, its program which highlights a “controlled immigration policy”.
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Elon Musk then attacked the German Chancellor directly, calling him “incompetent fool”after the attack at the Magdeburg Christmas market which caused the death of six people on December 20. And, the icing on the AfD's Christmas log, he then organized a debate, broadcast live on X this Thursday, January 9, with the leader of the far-right party, Alice Weidel.
“Nothing in the DSA [le règlement européen sur les services numériques] does not prohibit such an online event »assures the spokesperson for the European Commission, Thomas Regnier, who prefers to keep a low profile. Remember that the institution has been investigating the X network since December 2023, based on suspicions of amplification of disinformation. For the moment, the investigation has not brought any conclusions.
The grooming gang scandal
At the same time, Elon Musk has set his sights on the United Kingdom. Note that the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has been in his sights since Labor came to power in July. At the end of the violent anti-immigration riots last summer, the owner of Tesla judged that a “civil war [était] inevitable “. In the process, he attacked the Labor government, which he accused of repressing the rioters too harshly and of directing “a tyrannical police state”.
This time, Elon Musk has chosen to shine the spotlight on a case of serial rape dating from the 2010s – locally called the scandal of « grooming gangs ». For decades, thousands of young teenage girls have been raped and sexually exploited in several towns in the north of England including Rotheram, Oxford, Bradfort and Rochdale. The majority of the alleged rapists, numbering in the hundreds, were of Pakistani origin.
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In detail, for the town of Rotherham, in Yorkshire alone, at least 1,510 children and adolescents were victims of rape or physical violence committed by British people mainly of Pakistani origin between 1997 and 2013, according to a study dating from 2014 and requested by the city district council. Another investigation, carried out by the Daily Mirror and published in March 2018, reported a thousand young girls victims of these gangs in Telford, north-east of London.
Although these cases sometimes date back to the 1990s, they only received media exposure in the early 2010s with the opening of the trial of a pedophile ring in Rochdale. Thus, the silence maintained on these scandals weighed heavily on the British authorities, who allegedly failed in their duties, ignoring the multiple reports and filing of complaints from victims. “When police learned gangs were approaching children at school gates, they hid the information from parents in case it led to 'community tensions'”details on this subject an article from the Telegraphpublished this January 4.
X, “an organ of propaganda”
This is where the owner of X comes in and his now famous tweets, which number in the hundreds in the space of a few days. « [Keir] Starmer must go and face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in British history,” he posted on January 3.
He accuses the Prime Minister of failing to manage these sex scandal cases while he was, at the same time, prosecutor at the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The opportunity for Elon Musk to reaffirm his full support for the far-right Reform UK party, currently led by Nigel Farage. According to some British media, the Tesla boss could even finance this party to the tune of $100 million.
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At the same time, Elon Musk called for the imprisonment of Jess Philips, Labor MP and Minister for Child Protection, who refused at the end of December the implementation of a public inquiry into the abuse perpetrated against adolescents in the town of Oldham, preferring to leave the initiative to local authorities. “The cowards who allowed the mass rape of little girls in Britain are still in power…for now”launched the billionaire on his social network.
A few days later, he was even more provocative by sharing a poll to find out “if the Americans are to free the British from their tyrannical government”. A question to which 58% of his community answered in the affirmative, a sign that for Elon Musk, his platform is a real communication tool.
“X is an organ of propaganda for its nationalist and populist ideas”analyzes the doctor of political science and specialist in geopolitics of Tech, Asma Mhalla, in the program “28 minutes” broadcast on Arte, this Monday, January 6. And the specialist to complete: Elon Musk “organized X as a new community organizing tool”, allowing him to have control over the way in which “we organize the story, we shape opinion and we model the political and media agenda”.
Orban and Meloni as allies
“He has with him a community of followers who become militias »continues Asma Mhalla. With Europe and its social democratic leaders as its main targets. “It is an offensive which aims to destabilize all European democratic regimes”, estimates Jean-Louis Bourlanges, former MoDem deputy and ex-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, also guest on the program “28 minutes”.
The latter reports an approach “very right” et « anti-woke » from Tesla owner, consisting of supporting “right-wing sovereignist currents”. Like the Hungarian Prime Minister, the very populist Viktor Orbán, whom Elon Musk met at the beginning of December when he visited Donald Trump in Florida.
But also Giorgia Meloni, the president of the European Council, who has already described the owner of Tesla as ” genius “. And who did not fail to underline with irony the recent change of heart of his European counterparts: “It makes me smile to see those who yesterday spoke of Musk as a genius, and who today portray him as a monster, only because he chose the “wrong” side on the barricade”she mocked. A way of positioning yourself as the ally of a man who, in a few days, will take the head of the new American department of government efficiency in Donald Trump's team.
