The American billionaire Elon Musk became an influential player in European politics, in so much that the French president Emmanuel Macron is now raising alarms about this. Musk ‘has no limits’, complain European political scientists. What threat did the billionaire voice for European traditions and rules?
The French president is sounding alarms: Europe is in danger threatened by none other than Tesla’s and SpaceX CEO, the multibillionaire Elon Musk. Macron literally stated the following: ‘Ten years ago, who would have imagined that the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks would be supporting a new international reactionary movement and intervening directly in elections, including in Germany?’
What is typical of Macron, he did not risk to refer to Musk directly, preferring to call him ‘the owner of a social network’. Well, but Musk made his main fortune in other areas and gained main publicity thanks to those areas. And the phrase ‘international reactionary movement’ is something really epic: Macron is sending a message to his supporters that he is not in any way a revolutionary but as much as a beacon of progress confronted by heinous global forces.
Musk is the one to symbolise these forces. Indeed, he took the liberty of a few pungent public statements about current developments in Europe. For example, a prediction that the right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) will win the forthcoming election, that it will be the only one capable of saving the country and that the incumbent chancellor Olaf Scholz is worthless.
‘What I find much more worrying than such insults is that Musk is supporting a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing extremist, which preaches rapprochement with Putin’s Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations’, Scholz said in response. The official spokesperson of the German government Christiane Hoffmann stated that Musk’s statements about the AfD were an attempt to influence the German election.
It should be noted that Musk’s accusations against Scholz were a mere trifle compared to what the businessman said about the British PM Keir Starmer who allegedly covered up rapes and sexual abuse of minors in Northern England taking place from late 1980 till mid-2010-s. Indeed, Starmer headed the Crown Prosecution Office and, probably, did not enforce a thorough investigation of the cases, as the criminals were of Pakistani origin and the Pakistanis were used to responding with counter-accusations to any accusations.
One way or the other, Elon Musk’s remembering this case and urging Starmer to resign was utterly out of line for the British authorities. Of course, Starmer refused to do so calling this a false attack, which was followed by Musk posting in his social network that ‘America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government’.
It could appear Musk played into the pocket of Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party and Starmer’s political opponent, but he suddenly stated that Farage ‘doesn’t have what it takes’ and that ‘his party needs a new leader’. Besides, Musk has actually supported the far-right leader Tommy Robinson, who was jailed for ‘contempt of court’, which also caused a stir in the local press.
Logically put, Macron’s ‘estate’ should inevitably follow Germany and Britain, and this is where the French president’s alarmed remarks about ‘the reactionary movement’ come from. But the thing is that Musk sympathises with the forces, which Europe traditionally considers far-right, almost marginal, having a right for existence just to play the role of a scarecrow for people.
Well, by doing this he actually compromises the order of things on this side of the ocean, which Europe’s elites cherish. He is attacking not personalities, but the system itself. This is much more serious.
Moreover, there is Donald Trump behind him, America’s old new master. Indeed, both former prosecutors having allegedly covered up crimes and current presidents having been forced to change four prime ministers only during the last year do have something to worry about.
‘By using his platform as an echo chamber’ Musk ‘interferes with European politics’, writes Le Parisien. Nor are observers quite happy that Musk is becoming increasingly popular among young Brits, for example. ‘Musk is not just a critical commentator on British politics but its key actor’, the Times reports.
Le Parisien’s journalists assume that Musk’s invectives against European authorities are partly a result of his own beliefs that more authoritarian governance is better for businesses and, to an extent, his response to Eurobureaucrats’ attempts to keep his social network in check. While paying lip service to the freedom of speech, EU authorities are actually implementing an unspoken monopoly for a selection of opinions you should take if you are not going to commit a social suicide. Musk did not show much enthusiasm in following these rules and they were trying to push him, which is causing a harsh response in its turn.
Emmanuel Todd, a historian and political expert, suggested another explanation: ‘Elon Musk ‘is the world’s richest man and he has no limits. He is dressing down the Germans and the English, I do not know what he will say about us, the French, but he is honest when he says this. And the truth is, this is what American geopolitical analysts think of Europeans: they despise us for our servility!’
Of course, neither Macron nor other European leaders admit having tampered with elections in other countries. When foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland openly mention ‘a possibility of a new election’ in Georgia, this is, certainly, driven by the care about democracy. But when Elon Musk makes political statements, they promptly are flagged to be democracy trampling.
While Musk praised the European far-right, Trump did not keep silence either and could make quite a few statements about Canada and Greenland. We now know the outcome: the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is going to resign and Greenland started talking of independence and the wish to separate from Denmark. Considering the circumstances, it is unlikely Scholz’s Germany and Starmer’s Britain will get off lightly, let alone Macron’s France, which Musk has not even started to tackle.
We are witnessing how the Trump – Musk tandem is showing the way to manage remote political crises without odd political moves, just by speaking through social networks. And even the current French president can do nothing about it.