Is Elon Musk Interfering In European Politics, What Are His Interests? Explained

Last Updated:February 19, 2025, 09:54 IST

While some experts have defended Elon Musk, saying he has the right to express his opinions, many have criticised him for meddling in European political affairs and using X as a platform to spread disinformation

Critics have argued that X’s leniency in moderation policies under Elon Musk has exacerbated the problem of disinformation in Europe. (Reuters File Photo)

Elon Musk told his followers in 2021 on Twitter that he would like to stay out of politics. After he took over the social media giant, he renamed it to X and repurposed it and allowed far-right agitators banned under previous ownership.

In January, Musk posted, “From MAGA to MEGA: Make Europe Great Again!” and has cast himself as the kingmaker in Europe.

It has been seen that Musk has his favourites in Europe — he writes often about Reform UK, the populist British party, and Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). But he does not post much about France, nor does he seem interested in Austria.

What Are Elon Musk’s Intentions In Europe?

United Kingdom: Musk’s relationship with former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak descended after Labour leader Keith Starmer become prime minister triggered by far-right riots. Musk has claimed Britain was a “tyrannical police state”, called Starmer “two-tier Keir” over the allegations of judicial discrimination against right-leaning politicians. He also called out the new farm inheritance tax rules as the UK “going full Stalin”.

He has asked King Charles to dissolve parliament and claimed Starmer should be in jail for his alleged involvement in the grooming gangs scandal, calling the PM “utterly despicable” and “deeply complicit in mass rapes in exchange for votes”.

Musk’s interest in UK affairs perhaps reflects his own political beliefs that have changed over the years. He previously described himself as a centrist and even donated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but now he talks a lot about the “woke mind virus”, as per BBC.

Germany: From his infamous Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration to appearing virtually at a campaign event for a far-right German political party (Alternative für Deutschland — AfD), where he urged people to not be ashamed of their country’s history. Musk, the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, was lauded for his statement in the German city of Halle. He has also called the country’s Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz, “a fool” and its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an “anti-democratic tyrant”. Scholz has responded with the words: “The rule is: don’t feed the troll.”

He also hosted a livestream on X with AfD leader Alice Weidel in which he sang paeans of the anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin AfD co-leader, and reiterated that the party was Germany’s only hope, while Weidel said Adolf Hitler was a communist.

A recent study by Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, as mentioned in Newsweek, found that Musk’s expressions of support for the AfD—which included a 74-minute interview with Weidel—had coincided with a “significant” increase in the party’s reach on the X platform.

Since Germany’s president dissolved parliament in December, he has accused Musk of trying to interfere in Germany’s national elections, which are scheduled for February 23.

Musk has also waded into the immigration debated, and said it has sparked “significant cultural and social tensions” in the European country since the mid-2010s.

Italy: Not just Germany, Musk has waded into politics in other European countries, throwing his support behind far-right leaders such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The right-wing leader dismissed concerns about political interference as the US tech billionaire. She defended Musk’s right to speak his mind, and had said, “I do not see this danger to democracy. Elon Musk is a very well-known and wealthy person who expresses his ideas.”

The Italian government is currently in advanced negotiations with Musk’s SpaceX company for a €1.6 billion ($1.65 billion) deal to provide encrypted telecommunications services via the Starlink satellite internet provider. “I evaluate foreign investments through a single lens, which is the lens of national interest, not friendships or political ideas of those who may invest,” Meloni said. Italy is evaluating the use of Musk’s space-based telecommunications system to provide secure communications between the government, Italian diplomats and defence officials operating in sensitive areas across the Mediterranean.

European Union: The billionaire has attacked Brussels and the European Commission, which has ruled that X violates its Digital Services Act (DSA) and will look closely at the Weidel livestream.

After the outgoing commission vice-president, Věra Jourová, told digital newspaper Politico Musk was “not able to recognise good and evil”, he described her as “the epitome of banal, bureaucratic evil”. He has similarly sparred with former commissioner Thierry Breton, as per Guardian. When Breton, a key architect of the DSA, criticised Musk’s support for Germany’s AfD as “the very definition of foreign interference”, Musk responded: “Bro, American ‘foreign interference’ is the only reason you’re not speaking German or Russian right now”.

He had also called the new commission “undemocratic” in November, adding that the European parliament. He has also intervened in Ireland, claiming in a post prompted by an anti-immigration rally in Dublin that “the people of Ireland are standing up for themselves” and promising to use X to fund legal challenges to planned hate speech legislation.

Is He Targeting Europe?

According to Trevor Traina, Trump’s previous ambassador to Austria, who spoke to CNN, “When Elon took over Twitter there was a concerted effort to shame companies out of advertising on his platform, to alienate him, to cancel him.” “So Elon has had a taste of the same bitter medicine that Donald Trump and others have been force-fed, and I think what we see today is his response.”

He also said the reason he could after Europe could be purely financial; “I think his purpose is always thinking about his own business interests,” Eric Nelson, a diplomat who served as Trump’s ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina during his first term, told CNN..

Musk has criticised red tape surrounding the tech sector in Europe; he runs a huge Tesla factory in Germany, a country where he has focused much attention, and is planning a contentious expansion of that site.

Disinformation And Europe

European nations have witnessed an increase in disinformation campaigns during elections. For instance, prior to the 2024 European Parliamentary elections, analysts identified a surge in misleading narratives on X targeting minority groups, questioning election integrity, and promoting fringe political ideologies, as per Modern Diplomacy.

Critics have argued that X’s leniency in moderation policies under Musk have exacerbated the problem.

An uptick in far-right movements across Europe, including in Germany, Hungary, and France, have been seen. They use X to amplify their messages to their groups, and the platform’s algorithm allegedly promote divisive content, enabling extremist groups to normalise radical ideologies, the Modern Diplomacy article said.

European security agencies have claimed that state-sponsored disinformation campaigns from actors like Russia and China exploit X’s vulnerabilities. They often target trust in democratic institutions, attempting to sow discord and weaken the EU’s cohesion.

If the EU succeeds in enforcing its regulatory framework, X may be forced to adopt stricter content moderation practices. This would mitigate some of the platform’s harmful effects but could lead to spars between Musk and European authorities.