Perhaps no European leader has felt the lash of Elon Musk’s social media outbursts more than Olaf Scholz (Germany’s Chancellor). The billionaire tech magnate owner of X has termed him an “incompetent fool” and advised him to resign. On Thursday Musk will host Alice Weidel (the head of Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant party AfD) on his platform for a lengthy chat. Many German politicians think it smacks of political interference. The AfD (Alternative for Germany) is running second in the polls ahead of federal elections to be held on 23^rd February. “You have to stay cool,” says Scholz. “Don’t feed the troll.” But some European leaders, particularly Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, have found favour with Elon Musk, others are finding it tough to ignore him, as he ventures into their domestic politics ahead of a fresh role of adviser to the incoming US President Trump.

In the space of mere 24 hours, four European governments have objected to Tesla CEO’s posts. French president Emmanuel Macron was among the first to express incredulity on Monday. “Ten years ago, who would have believed it, if we had been told that the owner of one of the biggest social networks in the world would support a new, international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?” said he. Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Store weighed in, too, opining he found it “worrying that a man with considerable access to social networks and significant economic resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries”. Pilar Alegría, Spain’s government spokeswoman, said digital platforms like X should act with “absolute neutrality and above all without any kind of interference”.

Musk has highlighted crime statistics in Spain and Norway, and blamed “mass unchecked immigration” for a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany. In the past few days, the billionaire tech magnate has written many posts attacking the UK PM Keir Starmer and his administration over grooming gangs and child sexual abuse. “Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” said the Keir Starmer, without mentioning Musk personally.

Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni has cultivated close bonds with Musk and calls him a “genius” and an “extraordinary innovator”. And Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who met the tech magnate while visiting US president elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, shares tech magnate ‘s dislike of George Soros (Hungarian-born liberal philanthropist). But it is the billionaire tech magnate’s intervention in German politics that is most sensitive, because of imminent elections. He has spoken out many times in favour of the AfD in recent weeks, and wrote an extremely controversial article for Welt am Sonntag in which he termed the AfD the “last spark of hope” for Germany.