Emmanuel Macron has added his voice to a growing chorus of criticism of Elon Musk in Europe, saying the world’s richest man is directly threatening the continent’s democratic process, including next month’s snap elections in Germany. He accused them of interfering.
The French president joined the Norwegian and British prime ministers and the German government spokesperson on Monday in responding to a barrage of hostile posts by Musk, who supports far-right parties and attacks Europe’s left-wing politicians.
The owner of social media platform requested to reduce the amount. Special advisor.
“Who would have imagined 10 years ago that the owner of the world’s largest social network would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?” Macron said.
In his address to the French ambassador, the French president made no mention of the billionaire’s name, saying he has built a constructive relationship with him and recently invited him to the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. Norway’s center-left Prime Minister also said the following, although he refrained: Jonas Girl Store.
But there was no doubt about whom either leader was talking.
“It is alarming that someone with enormous access to social media and enormous economic resources would be so directly involved in the internal affairs of another country,” Store told public broadcaster NRK. “This is not the way things should be between democracies and allies.”
In response to a question about what would happen if Musk became directly involved in Norwegian politics, Storr said that the country’s politicians, who are holding a general election in September, would “warn against such efforts and distance themselves. I hope so,” he added.
A German government spokesperson cited Musk by name and argued that his influence with voters was limited. “The majority of people in this country are ordinary people, decent people, decent people,” he told a regular press conference in Berlin.
“We are acting as if Mr. Musk’s tweets are falsehoods, half-truths, or statements of opinion that could impact this country of 84 million people,” the spokesperson added. “This is simply not true.”
Berlin announced last week that Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, tried to influence the country’s close February 23 federal election with a controversial guest article in the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. I accused him of being there.
The billionaire will also take part in an hour-long livestream chat with Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD), on X later this week. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” he said in a post last month.
Mr Musk claimed his party, which is second in opinion polls, was Germany’s “last spark of hope”. He also called Social Democratic Party Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “stupid” and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier an “anti-democratic tyrant.”
German Deputy Prime Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday that Musk’s support for the AfD was a “logical and systematic” maneuver by the billionaire on behalf of a weak Europe that cannot regulate social media and other tech companies so strongly. said.
Scholz himself said in an interview with Stern magazine over the weekend that he would not make any effort to engage with Musk. “I don’t believe in doing Mr. Musk’s favor. It’s okay to leave that to other people,” he said. “The rule is don’t feed the trolls.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended his career on Monday after days of hostile attacks by Mr Musk, saying people spreading lies and misinformation online should support those affected. They said they were not interested in what they were doing and were only thinking about themselves.
Mr Musk’s blistering attack focuses on the child sex abuse scandal that first came to light during Mr Starmer’s tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions, calling for a new public inquiry and calling for the Labor leader to resign.
In response to a question about Musk, Starmer said: “I don’t want to make this personal to Elon Musk,” but added that some of the criticism “crosses the line”. . Musk later described the prime minister as “absolutely despicable” in a new post on X.
