WASHINGTON, Jan 4: He demanded new elections in Britain, promoted Germany's far-right, blasted the European Commission -- and that's just the start. Elon Musk is pushing the hard right in Europe, where progressives are grappling with how, or even whether, to contain him.
The interventions by the world's wealthiest man -- who also owns one of the planet's largest megaphones, social media platform X -- have already seen him secure unprecedented influence thanks to his proximity to US President-elect Donald Trump.
Now the ever-more powerful Tesla and SpaceX chief is turning his gaze on Europe, where many governments are already grappling with the rise of populism and the far-right.
"(Keir) Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain," the multi-billionaire posted recently.
He was referring to the British prime minister's time as chief state prosecutor in England and Wales, which coincided with a child grooming scandal -- posting about it repeatedly on Friday.
Musk has also called for the release from prison of Tommy Robinson, an extremist agitator, and boosted the fringe anti-immigration Reform UK party, whose leader Nigel Farage he met with recently.
On Friday, he shared a message from former prime minister Liz Truss calling for an end to state BBC funding.
As in the United States, Musk is increasingly popular with young British men, according to the Savanta polling institute.
For them, "the lines between the perceptions of success and wealth are increasingly blurred with politics," Chris Hopkins, Savanta's political research director, told AFP on Friday.
Downing Street has so far refrained from engaging with Musk's comments, other than the odd light rebuke and stressing that it "looks forward" to working with Trump's administration.
The response Friday by a senior British government minister to Musk's latest attacks over the exploitation scandal highlighted the delicacy of leaders' high-wire act.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told ITV News that Musk's comments were "misjudged and certainly misinformed."
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned Elon Musk's "erratic" comments and his open support for the extreme-right AfD party in an interview published Saturday.
The world's wealthiest man -- who owns social media platform X -- has in a string of posts attacked several European leaders and ruffled feathers on the continent.
Asked about interference by Musk -- who last month called Scholz an "incompetent fool" before calling the German president an "anti-democratic tyrant", the chancellor told Stern magazine it was important "to keep calm" ahead of Germany's snap elections on February 23.
"In Germany, everything is proceeding according to the wishes of our citizens and not the erratic comments of an American billionaire," he told the magazine in an interview. —AFP
