Emmanuel Macron joins growing criticism of Elon Musk in Europe

 

Emmanuel Macron joins growing criticism of Elon Musk in Europe

 

French president accuses world’s richest man of intervening directly in continent’s democratic processes

 

Jon Henley Europe correspondent

Mon 6 Jan 2025 14.07 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/06/emmanuel-macron-joins-growing-criticism-elon-musk-europe

 

Emmanuel Macron has added his voice to a growing chorus of European criticism of Elon Musk, accusing the world’s richest man of intervening directly in the continent’s democratic processes, including Germany’s snap federal elections next month.

 

The French president joined the Norwegian and British prime ministers and a German government spokesperson on Monday in responding to a barrage of hostile posts by Musk backing far-right political parties and attacking leftwing politicians in Europe.

 

The owner of the social media platform X is a close ally of Donald Trump and, after spending more than $250m (£210m) to help get him re-elected, has been asked by the incoming US president to cut the federal budget as a special adviser.

 

“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,” Macron said.

 

In a speech to French ambassadors, the French president, who has previously cultivated a constructive relationship with Musk, most recently inviting him to the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral, refrained from mentioning the billionaire by name – as did Norway’s centre-left prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

 

There was no doubt, however, who either leader was talking about.

 

“I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and huge economic resources involves himself so directly in the internal affairs of other countries,” Støre told public broadcaster NRK. “This is not the way things should be between democracies and allies.”

 

In response to a question about what would happen were Musk to involve himself directly in Norwegian politics, Støre added that he hoped the country’s politicians – who face a general election in September – “would warn against, and distance themselves from, such efforts”.

 

A German government spokesperson did mention Musk by name, insisting his influence on voters was limited. “Normal people, sensible people, decent people are in a big majority in this country,” the spokesperson told a regular press conference in Berlin.

 

“We act as if Mr Musk’s Twitter statements could influence a country of 84 million people with untruths or half-truths or expressions of opinion,” the spokesperson added. “This is simply not the case.”

 

Berlin last week accused Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, of trying to influence the country’s crunch 23 February federal elections with a controversial guest opinion piece for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

 

The billionaire is also due to take part in a livestreamed hour-long chat with the leader of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, on X later this week. In a post last month he said “only the AfD can save Germany”.

 

Musk has claimed the party, running second in the polls, is the “last spark of hope” for Germany. He has also called the country’s Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz, “a fool” and its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an “anti-democratic tyrant”.

 

Germany’s vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, said on Monday that Musk’s support for the AfD was a “logical and systematic” play by the billionaire for a weaker Europe that would not be able to regulate social media and other tech firms as strongly.

 

Scholz himself said at the weekend in an interview with Stern magazine that he would make no efforts to engage with Musk. “I don’t believe in courting Mr Musk’s favour. I’m happy to leave that to others,” he said. “The rule is: don’t feed the troll.”

 

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Monday defended his record after days of hostile attacks from Musk and said people spreading lies and misinformation online were not interested in supporting those affected, only in themselves.

 

Musk’s tirade has focused on child sexual abuse scandals that first emerged during Starmer’s tenure as director of public prosecutions, demanding a new public inquiry and calling on the Labour prime minister to resign.

 

Responding to a question about Musk, Starmer said he was “not going to individualise this to Elon Musk” but added “a line has been crossed” with some of the criticism. Musk later described the prime minister as “utterly despicable” in a new X post.