In a potpourri of political commentary he’s shared publicly over the last few days, Musk criticized U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s track record, praised Germany’s rightwing AfD party, and took a social media swipe at Italian judges.

What is Musk saying about European politics?

In a post on X, Musk endorsed the AfD. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” he wrote. 

The AfD party started as an anti-EU party, but has come to symbolize the particularly potent strain of reactionary politics that have characterized much of European and U.S. politics over the past couple of years.

In November 2023, German law enforcement designated a local chapter of the AfD as a hate group. Other parties in German politics, including Olaf Sholz’s, have vowed never to coalition with the AfD.

Yet that hasn’t stopped the party from gaining major ground at the ballot box when it won state elections in Thuringia. 

In Germany, the prospect of emboldening a rightwing, nativist political party is not treated lightly given the country’s history.

In a spree of X posts over the past several days, Musk excoriated Starmer and his allies in the Labour Party, which recently won elections after 14 years of Conservative Party leadership in Downing Street. 

Musk’s comments about U.K. politics had a significantly more personal nature, criticizing Starmer directly.

Musk’s attacks focused on what he considered to be Starmer’s mishandling of a major child sex abuse scandal when he was the U.K.’s top prosecutor. The decades-old case became a high-profile national issue when an investigation found that more than 1,400 hundred minors were exploited by gangs committing coordinated acts of child sex abuse. At the time, British law enforcement was found to have ignored repeated warning signs about what was taking place. 

Starmer defended his record on the matter, noting that he brought the first such prosecution related to the sex abuse cases when he was director of the Crown Prosecution Service and rewrote new rules to strengthen reporting requirements for child sex abuse. The U.K. leader characterized Musk’s comments as “lies and misinformation.”  

Why experts think Musk is wading into the discussion

Musk’s entry into European political discourse comes at a time when there is already widespread trepidation across Europe over the incoming Trump administration’s proposal to implement blanket tariffs. Should Trump follow through, they could significantly impact the economies of Europe’s major exporters. 

Musk’s raft of comments signals to European allies that the dynamics of their relationship with the U.S. are, indeed, set to change, according to John Torpey, director of the European Union Studies Center at the CUNY Graduate Center.

“At some level, if he’s currently Donald Trump’s wingman, this sends a message that there’s a new sheriff in town,” Torpey said. “You’re not really going to know what to expect from this new administration.”

Musk’s close relationship with Trump, whose White House bid he supported to the tune of $277 million, means his comments present a diplomatic conundrum for European powers. 

The U.K. and Germany “tried to wait out these attacks to not strain relations with Trump from the beginning, as Musk’s comments are perceived to be at least not opposed by Trump, but now, they seem to have united in their push-back,” said Liana Fix, a fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations. 

Musk’s comments are complicated further by the fact that his many companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX, and X, are interested in attracting European investment. Supporting certain parties can help Musk win their favor in the future as their political power grows. 

“Musk has never recognized any bounds for putting his finger on the scale,” said Belinda Davis, a professor of modern German and European history at Rutgers University. 

Musk’s ownership of X, where he posted most of his comments, also allows him to reach hundreds of millions of users across Europe and the world. “He knows the power of X in Europe,” Davis said. 

What did European leaders say about Musk? 

Musk’s comments did not go unnoticed by European leaders, who clearly denounced what they saw as unwelcome interference. 

European leaders’ patience is running thin with what they perceive as a campaign by Musk to embolden far-right parties in Europe—at a time when those parties are on the rise in many countries,” said Fix.

In addition to the rebukes from Germany and the U.K., leaders from France and Norway also took aim at Musk on Monday. 

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who was not the subject of any of Musk’s attacks, echoed the concerns of his fellow heads of government. 

“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,” Stoere told Norway’s public broadcaster NRK.

French President Emmanuel Macron, too, highlighted X’s role in boosting Musk’s influence. 

“Ten years ago if someone had told us the owner of one of the world’s biggest social-media companies would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany, who would have imagined that?,” Macron told reporters.

Elections in Germany are scheduled for Feb. 23, making Musk’s avid support of the AfD all the more relevant.

The German government, headed by Chancellor Scholz, a member of the Social Democratic Party, cited Musk by name in a statement released Monday, brushing off his ability to influence the country’s political climate. 

“We act as if Mr. Musk’s statements could influence a country of 84 million people with untruths or half-truths or expressions of opinion,” a government spokesperson said, according to the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “This is simply not the case,” he added.

Meanwhile, Starmer emphasized what he considered to be the danger of Musk’s comments.
“Once we lose the anchor that truth matters, in the robust debate that we must have, then we are on a very slippery slope,” Starmer said during a press conference in London.