Elon Musk
Billionaire Elon Musk called this Saturday for the “abolition” of the European Union, after denouncing the “community bureaucratic system”, which is “slowly suffocating Europe to death”. The EU will not be intimidated by reactionaries, says the French Foreign Minister.
The CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and the former Twitter, Elon Muskwhich at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year expressed controversial positions on European politics several times (with apparent repercussions on the sales of its electric vehicles on the Old Continent) returned to express strong opinions about the lives of Europeans.
This Saturday, the controversial North American billionaire of South African origin appealed to “abolition of the European Union”, after denouncing the “community bureaucratic system”, which he says is “slowly suffocating Europe to death”.
Musk’s statements came following the announcement, on Friday, of a fine of 120 million of euros that the European Commission invested in its social network X, due to the “misleading design” of your blue seal account verification.
In a long series of messages published over the last few hours, Musk viewed the fine as a Brussels’ attack on freedom of expression and a bad example of supranational sovereignty exercised against the interests of the Member States.
“The best way to find out who the bad guys are is to see who wants to restrict freedom of expression”, lamented Musk, following the sanction applied to the platform — which, in March, Turks, during protests against the Erdogan regime.
This blue seal, recalls , is perceived by users as a mark of authenticity, although access is discretionarywhich violates the obligations set out in the European Digital Services Act (DSA).
The sanction announced by Brussels also responds to other irregularities covered by the DSA, such as the lack of transparency in advertisements and the failure to comply with the obligation to allow researchers access to the platform’s data.
This is a European Commission that “worships the god of bureaucracy and is suffocating the people of Europe”, accused Musk in his series of briefs. “The bureaucracy of the European Union”, insisted, “it is slowly suffocating Europe until death.”
Therefore, he reiterated, “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty should be returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent its people.” Musk ended up pinning this to the top of his profile, making it the first text read by almost 230 million followers that is on the platform.
The succession of messages was well received by eurosceptics and far-right politicians, such as the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbánwho also denounced the EU fine as a attack on freedom of expression.
“The Commission’s attack on X says it all. When the Brussels overlords fail to win the debate, resort to fines. Europe needs freedom of speech, not of bureaucrats that no one elected and who decide what we can read or say”, in a message published on X.
Orbán finishes with a compliment to the multimillionaire. “Hats off to Elon Musk for being on the front line.”
“And this is just the beginning”
In the opposite sense, Jean-Noel Barrotthe French Minister of Foreign Affairs, came out, also through platform X, to defend the fine decided by the European Commission and insist that the transparency of social networks It is a priority principle.
“A reactionary international community can scream until it goes hoarsebut we will not be intimidated. Transparency is mandatory for the main platforms”, stated Barrot.
The head of French diplomacy who “the rule is the same for everyone” and that, at the time, “was accepted by the TikTok platform, while X rejected it” and, therefore, “the European Commission took action — and rightly so.”And this is just the beginning”, concluded the French minister in his message.
The social network that Elon Musk in 2022 is booming — unlike his once iconic electric vehicle manufacturer, whose sales in Europe (and not only) are, while electric sales grow.
A Tesla led the electric vehicle market in Portugal until February of this year, when it was .
According to AP News, the drop in Tesla sales is a likely indicator of European consumers’ reaction to Tesla, after Musk has intervened on several occasions in the internal politics of countries on the Old Continent, namely in the United Kingdom and Germany, where he expressed explicit support for the far-right AfD party.
In November last year, after the collapse of the center-left coalition of Olaf Scholz, German Musk and . In January, he called on King Charles III to dissolve the British parliament and criticized the prime minister Keir Starmer — that .
As I said Russ Mouldinvestment director at AJ Bell, told the BBC, “some consumers may even be reacting, not buying Tesla vehicles — for a matter of principles“.
