Musk extends political tentacles to the UK and Germany

Elon Musk is looking to wield the power of his social media network to boost far-right political movements in the UK and Germany, after becoming a strong supporter of President-elect Trump in November’s election.

Musk has in recent days boosted populist and anti-immigrant figures in major European economies, where he has significant business investments.

The tech billionaire has called for new elections in the United Kingdom, criticizing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and expressing his support for far-right figures in the country such as Nigel Farage, head of the Reform Party, and Tommy Robinson, an anti-immigrant agitator.

And ahead of Germany’s snap election in February, Musk is voicing his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, suspected by German authorities of potential right-wing extremism, and disparaging German Chancellor Olaf Scholz like “Oaf Schitz.”

“As someone who has invested significantly in Germany’s industrial and technological landscape, I believe I have earned the right to speak frankly about its political direction,” Musk said. he wrote in a comment for the German magazine Welt am Sonntag.

Musk has “this sense of having the world as a stage,” said Jackson Janes, senior resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund and president emeritus of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.

“I think to some extent he’s thinking he can inject that, ‘You have to break things before you can make them new,’ and he represents that.”

Musk, who dabbles in British and German politics, follows his rapid rise into Trump’s inner circle, having given more than a quarter of a billion dollars to the president-elect’s campaign.

Trump has included Musk in calls with foreign leaders and named him co-head of an advisory body to cut government bureaucracy in the name of efficiency, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Musk successfully lobbied Republicans to end a short-term government spending deal last month; and Trump came together this week to support H1B visas for high-skilled workers, despite pushback from anti-immigrant voices in Trump’s base.

Now it looks like it’s trying to replicate that kind of influence in Europe.

Nick Candy, treasurer of Reform UK, the far-right, populist, Eurosceptic party led by Farage, he told the Financial Times that Musk could be one of the party’s many billionaire donors.

In the UK, foreigners can donate money to political parties through the British companies they own. Musk’s Tesla is a major supplier of mains batteries in the UK, which store excess electricity generated by renewable sources.

“We have a number of billionaires ready to give to the party, not just Elon,” Candy told the Financial Times. “The Reform Party is the disruptor; this is the seed round, the Series A. This will be a political disruption like we’ve never seen before.”

The interview followed a meeting between Candy, Farage and Musk at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence in Florida on December 17.

“Time for reform,” Musk wrote to X, republican Farageon January 2

Musk has also gone after Starmer and his government, seeking to link the Labor leader to a decades-old scandal involving grooming gangs in northern English cities.

The Labor government is under renewed criticism after rejecting a request Thursday to launch a national investigation in the grooming scandal, which largely targeted teenage girls, with many male offenders of Pakistani origin.

Musk has been posting outrage over the scandal at X since at least August. Lindsay Gorman, managing director and senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund’s technology program, said the billionaire’s actions did not appear to be motivated solely by financial interests.

“While it’s nearly impossible for business leaders to disentangle business interests from political activity, I think it’s more than that,” Gorman said.

“Certainly, the movements and parties that (Musk) supports in the UK and Germany have a better chance of championing and pushing a deregulatory agenda that would make life easier for SpaceX and Tesla. But it’s as much about ideology, influence and creating a movement based on Musk’s worldview as a direct benefit.”

On January 1, Musk caused further controversy in the UK by calling for the release of jailed anti-immigration campaigner Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Robinson was jailed in October, sentenced to 18 months for breaching a court order not to repeat false claims about a Syrian refugee.

While Starmer has not publicly addressed Musk’s online attacks, some Labor MPs have spoken out against the billionaire.

“Musk’s support of not only Tommy Robinson, but also the AfD in Germany, shows how big a problem he is for democracy, as well as the reputation of those who love him like Nigel Farage and Liz Truss,” said Labor MP Stella Creasy. , he told Politicowith the outlet noting that his constituency saw a large counter-demonstration against the far-right amid the riots last summer.

Truss, who served as prime minister for 49 days in 2022, has spoken out in support of Musk and has endorsed Trump in the 2024 race.

While Starmer is not required to call a new election until 2029, following a Labor defeat earlier this year, Musk is also looking to influence the looming elections in Germany.

The CEO of Tesla and Space X on Friday said he will host AfD chief Alice Weidel for a live interview on X on Monday.

“The AfD, despite being labeled far-right, offers a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are being ignored by the establishment. They address the issues at hand without the political correctness that often masks the truth ,” Musk wrote in his op-ed.

Musk said AfD’s “approach to reducing government overreach, cutting taxes and deregulating the market echoes the principles that have made Tesla and SpaceX successful.”

Musk also called for Germany to adopt battery energy storage, of which Tesla is a major supplier. Environmental activists have tried to block the expansion from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin, which manufactures electric cars and battery cells.

“To those who denounce the AfD as extremist, I say, look beyond the labels. Look at the policies, economic plans and cultural preservation efforts,” Musk wrote.

The German government Musk has previously accused of trying to influence their choice.

Janes, of the German Marshall Fund, called the AfD’s platform “stale” and opposed the principles Musk embodies.

“This is not the party that actually promotes people like him, he’s a globalist, right? He’s got stuff all over the world. The richest man in the world, and the party itself is kind of a protest party against that.” , he said.

Still, Janes said he doesn’t necessarily see Musk’s advocacy moving the needle with German voters. While the AfD has surged in popularity and is expected to be the second largest party in the election, Germany’s other parties have vowed to keep it out of a ruling coalition.

“I think there has been an overreaction in Germany on the issue, and they could have just ignored it, almost, or at least brushed it off by saying that he has his opinion, which is not ours, instead of being very, very angry about it in the public domain,” Janes said.

“So we’ll see where it goes. But I have a feeling it’s going to be a bit of an issue that won’t necessarily make a difference. I think.”

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