Without naming him, Emmanuel Macron attacked Elon Musk at the beginning of the week during the ambassadors’ conference in Paris. According to the French president, by showing his support for various far-right parties such as Reform UK in England or the AFD in Germany, the billionaire is trying to set up a “new reactionary International” in Europe.
A term used for several years now by researchers specializing in the extreme right such as Erwan Lecoeur: “Since the appearance of the Internet, we have observed an internationalization of authoritarian nationalisms, historically in disagreement and even in conflict, which will exchange ideas, elements of language, contacts… This is the appearance of the fascistosphere. »
Physical collaboration only appeared later, with the intervention of great fortunes of which Elon Musk is only the heir: “We can think of Bolloré in France, but also of the Koch brothers in Belgium, who financed numerous far-right campaigns. »
Steve Bannon before him
It is therefore not a new idea, even in the United States, since the experiment was tried during Donald Trump’s first term. In 2019, it was Steve Bannon, just excluded from the administration of the Republican president, who launched “The Movement”, as well as a tour of Europe to meet the different far-right parties and leaders. France, Italy, Hungary, Bannon will obtain the support of personalities like Viktor Orban or Matteo Salvini. A few months before the 2019 European elections, this project aimed to create a sudden union in order to boost the scores of the radical right. A failure, in the scores and in the method, which does not surprise Jean-Yves Camus, political scientist specializing in the extreme right.
“The problem with Steve Bannon is that he arrives in Europe with an American prism and thinks that all parties will listen to him. But the Le Pens and the Salvinis did not wait for it to achieve electoral success.” Too much condescension which then pushes European parties to gradually move away from this initiative.
Can Musk change the game?
The owner of “He is not currently seeking to set up a structure,” explains Jean-Yves Camus, “but he has a fortune and greater influence than Steve Bannon at the time. »
The main question, according to him, is whether Donald Trump will give Elon Musk such freedom from the moment he enters the White House. “From January 20, Elon Musk will serve the president on a very special mission. » Along with Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk will lead a mission to reduce the costs of the state apparatus, allowing him to push his ultraliberalism to its peak. Impossible for him to go on tour in Europe with this label, even less to harangue the European extreme right.
No contact with France?
One of the questions the political scientist asks is why no public rapprochement has so far been attempted by Elon Musk with Marine Le Pen and the National Rally. However, it was with the National Rally, at the time the National Front, that Bannon’s movement was launched. In March 2018, he gave a speech at the 16th congress of the Front National, for one of his first major appearances in Europe.
For Jean-Yves Camus, the failure of 2018 taught Marine Le Pen a lot. “She understood that the difference in culture between the French and American extreme right was too strong. Among French nationalists, the United States is not very popular. The Americanization of society, consumerism, the financial and cultural weight of the United States, these are elements that are criticized by the far right. » An all-powerful America that would make France lose its “values”, its “importance”, a classic rhetoric of the French extreme right.
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A final point of disagreement according to him concerns major program differences, on the question of liberalism: “Donald Trump has announced that he wants to make huge cuts in the functioning of the American state, which goes against the program of the National Rally, which wishes to maintain a strong social state… but reserved for nationals. »
