Elon Musk's galactic ego sows chaos in European politics

Opinion It's been a busy month in the political brain of Elon Musk. The tech, automotive, and space entrepreneur has gone from mulling a donation to the Reform UK party worth around $100 million to calling its leader unfit.

Musk may have founded SpaceX, which is credited with transforming private sector space transport, but his political positioning seems less reliable. The current fallout with Reform UK's leader – Nigel Farage, a well-known figure on the British populist right – stems from Farage's refusal to consider far-right activist Tommy Robinson among Reform's ranks.

For Musk, it seems Farage and his allies were not quite right-wing enough, and he let his 210 million X followers know about it.

"The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn't have what it takes," he posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter at the weekend.

Farage may have reason for being wary of Robinson, who was jailed for contempt of court in the UK after repeating false claims about a Syrian refugee. Robinson had previously been found in contempt of court in 2019, following appeal, after his breach of reporting restrictions risked the collapse of a trial.

You'd think that someone with more than three companies to run who is also co-leader of the proposed US Department of Government Efficiency would have something better to do with his time than pay attention to Reform UK, the seventh-largest political party in terms of seats in the House of Commons. Obviously, Musk works on another level.

Nonetheless, Musk is keen on voicing his political opinions and even more keen for them to be heard.

In 2022, he bought Twitter for $44 billion – only after a court case forced him to do so following his attempt to back out of the deal. The new ownership allowed a raft of previously banned personalities back onto the platform, and the company's estimated value has since collapsed to less than a quarter of what Musk paid for it.

Despite promising to make Twitter politically neutral, Musk went in for some vigorous backing of US President-elect Donald Trump, reportedly plowing a quarter of a billion dollars into the twice-impeached former president's campaign and lavishing Trump's rallies with his dubious bodily coordination.

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Musk's recent meddling in European politics has prompted condemnation from EU leaders. Norway's prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, said it was worrying that the billionaire was involved in the political issues of countries outside of the United States. Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron denounced the Tesla CEO's maneuvering as "unacceptable interference" in the region's politics. "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 warned.

This was likely a reference to last month's comments by Musk about the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), saying "only the AfD can save Germany," and backing this up with an opinion piece published in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, a move that led to the resignation of the outlet's opinion editor.

"The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka!" he wrote. "Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!"

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who Musk also called a "fool," gave an unusually frank interview to German current affairs mag Stern and said that he wasn't bothered by Musk's insults, although the billionaire's support for the AfD was disturbing.

"Germany is a strong and stable democracy – Musk can say what he wants. In Germany, the will of the citizens prevails, not the erratic statements of a billionaire from the USA," he said.

"I don't believe in courting Mr Musk's favor. I'm happy to leave that to others. There are many people on social media who want to attract attention with shrill slogans. The rule is: Don't feed the troll."

Yesterday, UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer stepped in after Musk launched a vitriolic attack on one of his ministers. "Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims [of crime], they're interested in themselves," he said.

This is unlikely to be the end of it. Musk has also blessed Ukraine and Canada with his political expertise, and he just seems to be having too much fun to give up on his newfound hobby.

In December, Musk took to his social media platform to mangle a quote from Plato. "Those who want power are the ones who least deserve it," he said. Staggeringly, he seemed to miss the irony that he has used his vast wealth to exert political power. While the South Africa-born billionaire's achievements in technology and engineering speak for themselves – whatever your view of them – the jury is certainly out on his political ambitions. ®