Faced with Elon Musk’s growing intervention in European political debates, several leaders of the Old Continent raised their voices on Monday against the thunderous billionaire, accused of peddling “lies and disinformation” and of supporting a “reactionary international”.
The British Prime Minister, one of Elon Musk’s favorite targets in recent weeks, denounced “those who spread lies and disinformation” after several days of frantic messages from the billionaire on X to attack the authorities’ management of a child crime case in England and support a far-right activist.
Elon Musk responded, accusing the Labor leader of being “utterly despicable”.
At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron regretted seeing the richest man on the planet supporting “a reactionary international” 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 movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany, who would have imagined it? », he said during a speech to the French ambassadors.
He was referring to the American billionaire’s strong support for the German far-right party AfD, notably in an article published in the newspaper Die Welt in the middle of the campaign for the early elections.
The tone contrasts with the time when European leaders fought to curry favor with the businessman, hoping to welcome a future Tesla factory and praising the visionary genius of the SpaceX founder.
Since he became politically involved with Donald Trump and played a leading role in his campaign, Elon Musk has increased his support for representatives of the far right in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Outings often published on its social network
They also put some of them in a delicate situation, a few days before the return to the White House of Donald Trump, who entrusted Elon Musk with a mission to reduce public spending.
“Attack on democracy”
A notable exception among major European countries: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who called Musk a “genius” and an “extraordinary innovator” in an interview with Corriere della Sera on Friday.
“It makes me smile to see those who until yesterday spoke of Musk as a genius and who today portray him as a monster, only because he chose the side considered “bad” on the barricade,” mocked the Italian leader, who briefly visited Donald Trump on Saturday in Florida.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned on Saturday the “erratic statements” of Elon Musk, who had called him “crazy” and “an incompetent imbecile”, before describing President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a “tyrant”. .
Musk also ruled that the British Labor government was running a “tyrannical police state” due to its prosecution of people who fueled violence on social media during last summer’s riots.
In this interview with Stern magazine, the Social Democratic German chancellor, however, felt that it was necessary to “keep calm” in the face of the hyperactive businessman.
“The German president is not an anti-democratic tyrant and Germany is a strong and stable democracy — no matter what Mr. Musk says,” Olaf Scholz stressed.
But his vice-chancellor and Minister of the Economy, the ecologist Robert Habeck, judged this weekend that “the combination of enormous wealth, control of information and networks, the use of artificial intelligence and the willingness to ignore the rules is a frontal attack on our democracy.”
In Norway too, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre expressed his concern on Monday, saying on public radio NRK, “concerning that a man with considerable access to social networks and significant economic resources would get involved in such a way directly in the internal affairs of other countries.
