Elon Musk used his wealth and influence to help Donald Trump get re-elected in November. The heads of Tesla and SpaceX are now defending Europe’s right-wing rebel politicians. Mr Musk supports Reform UK in the UK and praises Germany’s far-right party AfD as the country’s savior.
Elon Musk, who leveraged his vast personal wealth to rally X’s 210 million followers to help Donald Trump win the November election, is turning his attention to European politics.
“Vote for Reform,” Musk said in an X post on Tuesday, referring to Reform UK, the British populist party led by Nigel Farage, a key figure in the 2016 Brexit vote.
The CEOs of Tesla and SpaceX have taken conservative positions in recent years on issues such as immigration, diversity and transgender rights, but in mid-December, the CEOs of President Trump’s Mar・Meeted with Mr. Farage, a controversial conservative brand, on “Lago.”
Mr Farage later told the BBC that Mr Musk was “fully behind us” and was prepared to donate to Reform UK if he could do so legally. Reformers have made no secret of their excitement over Mr Musk and his potential donation, with Mr Farage describing him as a “bloody hero” in a recent interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
Musk has also been a vocal critic of Britain’s centre-left Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In numerous posts on X, he called the country a “tyrannical police state,” supported calls for elections even though they were only held in July, and said the country was on the brink of civil war. suggested.
The tech billionaire has also thrown his weight behind Germany’s far-right party AfD, which has been strongly anti-immigration and aligned with President Trump’s calls for mass deportations.
The AfD currently holds about 10% of seats in Germany’s legislative body, the Bundestag, but has significantly increased its seats in recent years, including coming second in this year’s European Parliament elections.
He is widely expected to win the second-highest vote share in February’s federal election, and like reformers, he welcomes Musk’s support. Alice Weidel, the party’s German chancellor candidate, said in an X-post on December 20 that Musk was “absolutely correct” in saying that the party was the only party that could “save Germany”. said.
Musk then defended the AfD in an op-ed published in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag over the weekend. The newspaper and Business Insider are both owned by Axel Springer.
Musk wrote that years of misguided policies by the major political parties have led to “economic stagnation, social unrest and the erosion of national identity” and that the AfD is “the last spark of hope” for the country. He justified Germany’s political comments by pointing to “huge investments” in the country.
Musk’s Tesla Gigafactory, located outside Berlin, is the company’s main European facility and employs nearly 12,000 people. In addition to completing the final assembly of the Tesla Model Y, it also produces components such as batteries.
The newspaper published a response from its editor-in-chief, Jean-Philippe Bourgaard, on the same page as Musk’s controversial column. “Musk’s diagnosis is correct,” Burgaard wrote, but his claim that only the AfD can save Germany is “fatally flawed.”
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Elon Musk hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory in 2023. Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images
Reuters first reported that before the op-ed, Musk had posted on X in support of the AfD, prompting a government spokesperson to accuse him of trying to interfere in the election.
A spokesperson said that Musk is free to express his opinions, but that “freedom of opinion includes the greatest nonsense.”
Friedrich Merz, a candidate for chancellor from the center-right Christian Democratic Union, called Musk’s support for the AfD “intrusive and exaggerated.”
“I cannot recall in the history of Western democracies anything comparable to interference in the electoral activities of friendly countries,” he told Funke Media Group.
Deputy Prime Minister Robert Habeck said in a New Year’s Eve message that Mr Musk’s support for the AfD was part of a “logical and systematic” campaign to weaken Europe and erode regulatory systems.
Several of Mr. Musk’s businesses, particularly Tesla, are subject to European regulations and stand to benefit from less oversight. Tesla’s plans for a fully self-driving car are facing higher hurdles in Europe, where regulations for self-driving cars are stricter.
Musk’s cozy relationship with Italian leaders
Musk also speaks favorably of Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In September, he called her a “precious genius” who is “even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside.”
Meloni heads the Italian Brotherhood Party, which has its roots in the post-World War II neo-fascist Italian social movement. She came to power in 2022 on a platform of cutting immigration, tightening border controls and traditional values. At the time, she was said to be Italy’s most right-wing leader since Benito Mussolini.
President Trump’s policies of tax cuts, tariffs, and deregulation promise to benefit his companies. As soon as Tesla’s victory was declared, Tesla’s stock price soared. But what Musk and his company stand to gain from the rise of companies backing him in Europe is less clear.
Not only are AfD and Reform unlikely to form a government anytime soon, but both have policies that could hurt Tesla.
The AfD has previously opposed Tesla’s expansion of its factory in Germany, but reformers have vowed to lift Britain’s impending ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars, which would naturally benefit EV makers like Tesla. It turns out.
The AfD ranks second with 19% support, higher than the 12.6% it received in the last election in 2021. Musk posted on Thursday that he would score an “epic victory” over X. Whether it turns out to be as profitable as expected or not, it is unlikely to stop welcoming the support of the world’s most outspoken billionaire.
