Emmanuel Macron has added his voice to a growing chorus of European criticism of Elon Musk, accusing the world’s richest man of intervening directly in the continent’s democratic processes, including Germany’s snap federal elections next month.
The French president joined the Norwegian and British prime ministers and a German government spokesperson on Monday in responding to a barrage of hostile posts by Musk backing far-right political parties and attacking leftwing politicians in Europe.
The owner of the social media platform X is a close ally of Donald Trump and, after spending more than $250m (£210m) to help get him re-elected, has been asked by the incoming US president to cut the federal budget as a special adviser.
“Ten years ago, who would have imagined that the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks would be supporting a new international reactionary movement and intervening directly in elections, including in Germany,” Macron said.
In a speech to French ambassadors, the French president, who has previously cultivated a constructive relationship with Musk, most recently inviting him to the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral, refrained from mentioning the billionaire by name – as did Norway’s centre-left prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.
There was no doubt, however, who either leader was talking about.
“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,” Støre told public broadcaster NRK. “This is not the way things should be between democracies and allies.”
