Elon Musk calls for the release of Tommy Robinson, figure of the British far right

This is yet another interference by the owner of social network X in UK politics. American billionaire Elon Musk demanded, Thursday, January 2, the release of British far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, recently convicted by the courts.

Since Labor's return to power in July and the anti-migrant and anti-Muslim riots which shook the United Kingdom this summer, Elon Musk has increased his comments on British news, judging that a “civil war” was ” inevitable “ in the country and that foreign investors were now fleeing the country.

He especially attacked the government of Keir Starmer, accused of repressing the rioters too harshly and of directing “a tyrannical police state”. But the conservative opposition is also worried about his connections with the anti-immigration Reform UK party, whose leader, Nigel Farage, he recently met in Florida. This time, it is Tommy Robinson that Elon Musk, who has become close to President-elect Donald Trump, is giving his support. “Free Tommy Robinson!” »he wrote on his X account on Thursday.

Real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Tommy Robinson was sentenced at the end of October to eighteen months in prison for violating a 2021 court decision which prohibited him from repeating defamatory comments towards a Syrian refugee. “Why is Tommy Robinson in solitary confinement for telling the truth? »Elon Musk further affirmed.

Founder of a small group from the hooligan movement

This emblematic figure of the British extreme right, founder in 2009 of the English Defense League, a small group originating from the hooligan movement, has already been condemned several times in recent years, notably for disorderly conduct. public order. Followed by more than a million people on

On police were implicated for not having taken the measure of this affair, fueling the discourse of the extreme right on a police “two-speed”.