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How Elon Musk shattered European tradition

American billionaire Elon Musk has suddenly become an influential participant in European politics, so much so that French President Emmanuel Macron is sounding the alarm. Musk has “no brakes,” European political analysts are outraged. What exactly is the American billionaire threatening European traditions and orders?

Macron is driven to panic

The French president is in a panic. In his opinion, Europe is in danger, and it is threatened by none other than the head of Tesla and SpaceX, multi-billionaire Elon Musk. Macron stated literally the following: “Ten years ago, if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new reactionary international and directly interfere in elections, including in Germany – could we have imagined something like this?”

Characteristically for Macron, he didn’t risk naming Musk directly, preferring to refer to him as “the owner of a social network.” And yet Musk made his main fortune in other areas and became famous thanks to them. And the expression “new reactionary international” is something epic: Macron sends a signal to his supporters that he himself is not a reactionary in any way, but no less than a light of progress, opposed by sinister world forces.

These forces are personified for Macron by Musk. And he has indeed made some sharp public remarks about current European events. For example, predicting that the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will win an “epic” victory in the upcoming elections soon, that it alone is in a position to save the country and that current Chancellor Olaf Scholz is nothing.

“Far more than Musk’s insults, what worries me is that he supports a party that is partly right-wing extremist, that proposes rapprochement with Putin’s Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations,” Scholz parried. German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said Musk’s remarks about the AfD were an attempt to influence the German election.

Musk:”America should free the people of Britain..”

Musk’s accusations against Scholz were a mere trifle compared to what the businessman said about current British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who allegedly covered up the rape and sexual exploitation of minors in the north of England that took place from the late 1980s to the mid-2010s. Starmer himself was actually in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013, and may not have shown the proper zeal in the investigations, as the perpetrators were from Pakistan, who are used to counter-accusations of racism in response to any accusations.

Now Elon Musk has reminded the British authorities of this history and called on Starmer to resign. The latter, of course, refused and called the accusations against him a fiction, after which Musk wrote on his own social network that “America should free the people of Britain from a tyrannical government.”

It might have appeared that Musk was backing Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party and Starmer’s political rival, but suddenly the billionaire let it be known that Farage was taking someone else’s place and that his party needed a new leader. In addition, Musk actually backed far-right leader Tommy Robinson, who was sent to prison “for contempt of court,” and that too caused a stir in the local press.

Logically, after Germany and Britain, Macron’s state must inevitably come next, hence the French president’s nervous talk of a “reactionary international.” But the point is not that Musk sympathises with forces that in Europe are traditionally regarded as extreme right-wing, almost marginal and having the right to exist only as a kind of public scarecrow.

The point is that with his actions he is actually questioning the established order on this side of the ocean, which is more than comfortable for the elites of Europe. He is not attacking individuals, but the system. And this is much more serious.

America’s old new leader

Besides, behind him is Donald Trump, America’s old new leader. There is something to start getting nervous about for both former prosecutors who swept crimes under the carpet and sitting presidents who have had to change four prime ministers in the past year alone.

“Using his platform as an echo chamber,” Le Parisien writes bitterly, Musk is “meddling in European politics.” Nor are observers thrilled that Musk is becoming an increasingly popular figure among young Britons, for example. “Musk is not just a critical commentator on British politics, but a frontline actor,” the Times reports.

According to Le Parisien journalists, Musk’s attacks on European authorities are partly a consequence of his own beliefs that more authoritarian forms of government are good for business, and partly a response to attempts by Eurobureaucrats to clamp down on his social network. While paying lip service to free speech, in practice EU authorities are enforcing an unspoken monopoly on a set of correct opinions that must be adhered to if you’re not going to commit social suicide.

Musk has shown little zeal in wanting to follow these rules, and they are trying to punish him, which in turn is provoking a harsh backlash.

The richest man in the world with no brakes

Historian and political expert Emmanuel Todd offered another explanation: Elon Musk is “the richest man in the world, and he has no brakes. He berates the Germans and the British – I don’t know what he would say about us French – but he says it frankly. And in fact, when you read American geopoliticians, that’s exactly what they think of us: they despise us for our servility.”

Of course, neither Macron nor other European leaders will admit to meddling in foreign elections. When the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland openly mention “the possibility of new elections” in Georgia on the eve of the new year of 2025, it is, of course, dictated only by concern for democracy. But when Elon Musk speaks out on political topics, it immediately becomes clear that the fundamental foundations of democracy are being trampled.

Trump’s territorial ambition

While Musk was encouraging the European right-wing, Trump was also not slumbering and managed to make many bold statements about Canada and Greenland. The result is known: Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau resigns, and Greenland starts talking about independence and the desire to separate from Denmark. Given the circumstances, Scholz’s Germany and Starmer’s Britain are unlikely to get off scot-free – not to mention Macron’s France, which Musk hasn’t even started on yet.

So, before our eyes, the Trump-Musk pair shows how it is possible to manage distant political processes without unnecessary political movements – only by means of social media appearances. And there is nothing even the current president of France can do about it.

THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.

Xiao Duong for Head-Post.com

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