Europe turns on Elon Musk as he blasts EU over digital rules

6 hours ago 5

Berlin: Europe is voting with its car keys against billionaire Elon Musk in a battle over liberal values, as the world’s richest man lends support to right-wing parties and blasts political leaders in Brussels.

The Tesla boss has stepped up his complaints about the European Union by claiming its top leader is not fairly elected, ahead of moves by legislators to regulate misinformation and artificial intelligence.

Elon Musk, seen here at the opening of the Tesla factory outside Berlin in 2022, is now facing a backlash in Europe.

The attacks over recent days mark the latest stage of Musk’s ongoing disputes with leaders ranging from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

But his support for right-wing populists has coincided with a customer backlash for Tesla, with the company’s sales plunging 38.7 per cent across the EU so far this year.

The sales shock coincided with the rise in popularity of electric vehicles, and Tesla’s biggest Chinese rivals soared, with BYD’s sales surging by 248.1 per cent from a low base.

Musk secured shareholder agreement earlier this month for a controversial pay deal worth $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) in stock over a decade if he meets financial targets, but the downturn in Europe highlights the cost of his political campaigns.

Tesla sales fell to 111,328 units in the first nine months of this year across the EU, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, and BYD sales rose to 80,807 units.

Brand-new vehicles ranked up outside Tesla’s German gigafactory.Credit: Getty

BYD will overtake Tesla next year if the trends continue. The Volkswagen Group dominates the market, with 2.2 million units sold over the same period, followed by Stellantis, which achieved sales of 1.3 million units for its brands, including Renault, Citroën, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo.

Musk endorsed right-wing German leader Alice Weidel in January before the national elections the following month, when she and the Alliance for Deutschland, or AfD, doubled their vote share to 20.8 per cent.

Also in January, he accused Starmer of being an “accomplice” to sexual assault by claiming he shielded child grooming gangs from prosecution – a claim at odds with the findings of public inquiries and rejected by the prime minister.

The latest clash pits Musk against von der Leyen over the EU plan to toughen its measures under the Digital Services Act to counter misinformation and curb foreign interference in elections.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen favours social media controls.

EU agencies fined Apple and Meta earlier this year over concerns related to competition and content, while they have also made findings against Musk’s social media platform, X. The EU investigation into X continues.

‘Network of fact-checkers’

Von der Leyen last week unveiled the new plan to regulate content, called the European Democracy Shield, with the promise that it would include fact-checkers to verify news and tougher protocols for online content.

“An independent European Network of Fact-Checkers will be set up to boost fact-checking capacity in all EU official languages,” the plan says.

“The European Digital Media Observatory will develop new independent monitoring and analytical capabilities for situational awareness on elections or in situations of crises.”

This will include measures on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in elections.

When von der Leyen declared that democracy was the foundation of freedom and the new measures would protect those values, Musk questioned her authority as an elected leader.

“If democracy is the foundation of freedom, surely your position as leader of the EU should be elected directly by the people?” he posted on X. “The leader of the EU should be elected by the people of the EU, not appointed by a committee!”

The commission president leads the executive arm of the union and is nominated by the European Council, the peak group of 28 national leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Von der Leyen, previously a federal minister in Germany, gained nomination in 2019 and again in 2024. The decisions were endorsed by the European Parliament in secret ballots, giving her majority support among 720 elected members from across the EU.

Musk is ranked by news service Bloomberg as the world’s richest man, with a net worth of $US431 billion. He is followed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, with $US280 billion, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with $US256 billion.

Next test

While tumbling Tesla sales measure the rejection of Musk, the next test of his influence in Europe will be in elections that pit his preferred parties against traditional conservatives and social democrats.

Musk has supported the Netherlands’ far-right politician Geert Wilders, but his party stalled at the national elections last month, and the community swung to centrist party Democrats 66 and its leader, Rob Jetten, who is in a strong position to become the next prime minister.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel speaks during an election event at the party’s Berlin headquarters.

In Britain, Musk made an incendiary speech to a right-wing protest in London in September, calling for a dissolution of parliament and saying violence was coming to the UK.

The billionaire’s support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson, however, has proven too divisive for others on the right. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has distanced himself from Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – and has fallen out with Musk.

Musk gave the AfD explicit support before the February elections in Germany, and the party doubled its vote to 20.8 per cent nationwide, but it fell far short of the support required to take office.

“There is discontent in Germany and the major parties are doing badly,” said Antonios Souris, the chair of German Politics at the Free University of Berlin.

Souris noted that some polls have shown a significant increase in support for the AfD in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the former East Germany, making the state election in September 2026 a test of public opinion.

In Berlin, where the state parliament representing the capital city also goes to an election in September, the AfD increased its support to 15 per cent in an opinion poll published in October, up from 9 per cent at the last election in 2023. The poll was conducted by Insa for the news site Nius.

Activist groups are campaigning against the AfD to try to curb its gains ahead of the elections next year, countering the support from Musk.

Marianne Zepp, a member of the Omas Gegen Rechts – which translates as “Grannies Against the Right” and holds public protests against the AfD – said the right-wing party had increased support but still failed to convince voters that it should form government.

“On the one hand, the votes for the AFD are going up. On the other hand, when it comes to elections to vote them into office, they are losing,” she said.

“When people vote for the AfD, it can be about resentment. But I think that the majority of Germans are very aware that right-wing tendencies, nationalism and even inclinations towards the Nazis are very dangerous for Germany, and they do not support that.”

American support for the AfD will continue to be a factor ahead of the next elections. Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna is preparing to host 40 members of the German party in Washington next month.

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