Musk, the pro-populist thorn in the EU’s side: Growing concern over ‘foreign interference’

He called the German chancellor an “incompetent idiot” and the country’s president an “anti-democratic tyrant.” Maybe such an insult wouldn’t matter if Elon Musk didn’t have the influence he does. But Europe is a key market for the tech billionaire, and includes electric cars, space technologies and satellites – currently the subject of talks between Musk’s SpaceX and the Italian government – as well as social media platform X, where Musk has broadcast a conversation with the leader of Germany’s far right AfD. That party is in second place in the polls ahead of key German parliamentary elections at the end of February. And of course, Musk has the ear of future US President Donald Trump.



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