Musk provokes European leaders ahead of chat with German far-right leader

Few European leaders have felt the lash of Elon Musk’s social media outbursts greater than Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The tech-billionaire proprietor of X has referred to as him an “incompetent idiot” and urged him to resign. On Thursday Musk will use his platform to host Alice Weidel, the top of Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant AfD for a prolonged chat.

For a lot of German politicians it smacks of political interference, with the AfD operating second within the polls forward of federal elections on 23 February.

“It’s a must to keep cool,” says Scholz. “Do not feed the troll.”

Though a few of Europe’s leaders, notably Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, have discovered favour with Musk, others are discovering it arduous to disregard him, as he ventures into their home politics forward of a brand new function an adviser to the incoming US President Donald Trump.

Within the house of 24 hours, 4 European governments have objected to Musk’s posts.

France’s Emmanuel Macron was among the many first to expressed incredulity on Monday.

“Ten years in the past, who would have believed it, if we had been instructed that the proprietor of one of many largest social networks on the planet would assist a brand new, worldwide reactionary motion and intervene instantly in elections, together with in Germany?” he mentioned.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Retailer weighed in, too, saying he discovered it “worrying {that a} man with appreciable entry to social networks and important financial sources is so instantly concerned within the inner affairs of different international locations”.

Spain’s authorities spokeswoman, Pilar Alegría, mentioned digital platforms comparable to X ought to act with “absolute neutrality and above all with none sort of interference”.

Musk has highlighted crime statistics in Norway and Spain, and blamed a lethal Christmas market assault in Germany on “mass unchecked immigration”.

Prior to now few days, Musk has written quite a few posts attacking the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his administration over grooming gangs and youngster sexual exploitation.

“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as large as doable will not be occupied with victims, they’re occupied with themselves,” mentioned the UK prime minister, with out mentioning Musk personally.

Two notable exceptions in Europe are Italy and Hungary.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cultivated shut ties with Elon Musk and calls him a “genius” and an “extraordinary innovator”.

And Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who met Musk whereas visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago final month, shares Musk’s dislike of Hungarian-born liberal philanthropist George Soros.

However it’s the tech-billionaire’s intervention in German politics that’s most contentious, due to imminent elections.

He has spoken out a number of occasions in favour of the AfD in latest weeks, and wrote a extremely controversial article for Welt am Sonntag through which he referred to as the AfD the “final spark of hope” for Germany.

Musk justified his intervention on the time due to his firm Tesla’s monetary funding in Germany. He mentioned portraying the AfD as right-wing, extremist was “clearly false”, as a result of Alice Weidel had a same-sex companion from Sri Lanka.

German safety companies have labelled the AfD both as right-wing extremist or suspected extremist and the courts have dominated it pursues objectives towards democracy.

Whereas Olaf Scholz has sought to remain calm, the Greens’ candidate for chancellor, Robert Habeck, was extra blunt: “Fingers off our democracy, Mr Musk.”

Liberal FDP chief Christian Lindner has urged that Musk’s intention may maybe be to weaken Germany within the US curiosity, “by recommending voting for a celebration that might hurt us economically and isolate us politically”.

The previous head of the European Fee’s digital agenda, Thierry Breton, took to X final weekend to warn Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor, that Thursday’s reside chat with Musk would give her “a major and precious benefit over your opponents”.

The European Fee has mentioned there may be nothing within the EU’s Digital Companies guidelines that bans a reside stream, or anybody expressing private views.

Nonetheless, a spokesman warned that platform homeowners mustn’t present “preferential therapy”. Musk’s X is already beneath investigation and the EU says the reside stream will come beneath that inquiry.

Whereas Musk has been outspoken on German politics, he has additionally been extending his enterprise pursuits in Italy.

Giorgia Meloni had simply been on a whirlwind journey to have dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago when reviews emerged that Italy was in talks with Musk’s SpaceX to signal a $1.6bn (£1.3bn) deal, beneath which Starlink satellites would offer encrypted web and telecommunications companies for the Italian authorities.

The deal doesn’t but seem to have been concluded and Rome has swiftly denied any contracts have been signed.

Musk mentioned on Monday that he was “prepared to offer Italy [with] probably the most safe and superior connectivity” – with out confirming a deal had been reached.

However the suggestion that Starlink could possibly be entrusted with safeguarding the Italian authorities’s communications was sufficient to trigger alarm amongst some opposition politicians in Rome.

“Handing over such a fragile service to Musk whereas he’s sponsoring the European far proper, spreading faux information and meddling within the inner politics of European international locations can’t be an choice,” mentioned centrist chief Carlo Calenda.