Jan 17 2025 12 mins 5
He has called the German chancellor an "incompetent idiot" and the country’s president an "anti-democratic tyrant". Perhaps such invective would not matter if Elon Musk did not have the influence that he does. But Europe is a key market for the tech billionaire, and it includes electric cars, space technologies and satellites – currently the topic of discussions between Musk's SpaceX and the Italian government – as well as social media platform X, where Musk has streamed a conversation with the leader of Germany's far-right AfD. That party is polling in second place ahead of crucial German parliamentary elections in late February. And of course, Musk has the ear of incoming US President Donald Trump.
So what influence could Musk have in a year of crucial elections, not just in Germany, but in other EU member states? And is he simply exercising freedom of speech, or interfering in the politics of European countries? We put the question to two MEPs.
Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Luke Brown and Perrine Desplats
