Tesla boss Elon Musk has added German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to the list of politicians he has insulted in Europe. He also announced a plan to speak to the leader of the country's far-right AfD.

(…) Plans for online Musk-Weidel meeting

The spokesman for the leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, said concrete plans were underway for an online meeting between her and Musk.

That came after Musk himself suggested a meeting between the two via X’s Spaces chat feature. “Wait until Alice and I do an X Spaces conversation. They will lose their minds,” he posted. (…)

“Elon Musk is equipped with billions and unbridled communication power,” Habeck wrote on X. “His call for the AfD is systematic: He wants to weaken Europe. Power must be limited: no business model must destroy our democracy. Europe must now use its power consistently.”

Concerns are also growing in the UK as Musk takes an increasingly close interest in Britain’s political scene, aligning himself with hard-right lawmaker Nigel Farage.

Musk has busied himself with taking aim at the UK’s center-left Labour government, launching a series of blistering comments against British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

  • NeuronautML@lemmy.mlEnglish
    26·
    5 days ago

    The funny thing about Elon’s and Trump’s strategy is that they still don’t understand the EU. Back during his first mandate Trump tried to get special deals with Angela Merkel and Angela Merkel told him no special deals, that’s not how the EU works. Trump’s weakness is apparently not being able to find the person or group of people in power and attempt a deal with them. He doesn’t understand how a union of countries can work where there are 27 governments needing to agree. He thinks someone must be the top dog and he needs to find them. Clearly he thinks it’s Germany (sorry France, most of us do too, cause at least they’re not French).

    Now from what seems to be the case, they seem to be trying to change Germany so it becomes more pliable to their interests so they can manipulate the EU, but that’s still not how the EU works. Are they going to go around the EU trying to get at least 15 member states by propping up populist parties one by one ? If that’s the case, Russia has been doing that for ages. Several communist fringe parties receive money all across Europe. It also does not work.

    Besides, there aren’t enough american favors or money to pull this off, people already hate Trump and Elon around here and it’s so overt that by the time they get to the 7th or 8th country all resolutions from suspected countries will just be vetoed. It’s a stupid idea from a country with an abundance of money for stupid ideas. Or maybe it’s 11D string theory chess that i don’t understand.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      He doesn’t understand how a union of countries can work where there are 27 governments needing to agree.

      Ironic actually since the US actually works in a similar way in this regard for most functions. Congress collectively represents the 50 States, and they are the ones to determine these things, with the President signing off on the result or not. The US President doesn’t have a much power in this regard directly to make these changes, it’s indirect by getting Congress to actually do it, and he’s just used to being able to threaten his cabal into doing what he wants because the Republican party is comprised of followers that can’t think for themselves, they just follow the leader at the head of the line. They’re always looking for someone to lead instead of doing it themselves.

      • NeuronautML@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        I disagree that it’s similar. In the US, despiee the congress passing laws or not, which affects the general bulk of the legislative process, the president is a figure of extreme power. As demonstrated even recently, the president is free to pass executive orders bypassing congress (which Trump did 220 times in one mandate) and bypass the legal system by unilaterally forgiving people who have been convicted of crimes (which Biden used to bail out his own son) and appointing supreme court judges and heads of critical regulatory state organizations unilaterally without approval of congress (which makes the agencies like the fda, ftc, epa and usda essentially toothless and ineffective at carrying out their functions properly). This is no small power. You can trade off on massive quid-pro-quo on that. He CAN do it not because the party he leads is brainless and are unable to argue, but because they stand to massively gain on his decisions if they support him. Why ? Because the US president has a ridiculously disproportionate amount of power focused on one single person and the US people simply have to suck it up. What are you going to do, vote for the OTHER corrupt party ?

        No position of the European hierarchy has even close to the amount of power the US president has over that many people. No one in the EU can unilaterally appoint heads of the European Court of Justice or regulatory organs, no one in the EU can say a convicted felon at the ECJ level now walks free because he’s the son of the president or the friend of the president. Nothing in the US works remotely similar. The US structure is, imho, made in such a way that it’s liable to incur severe corruption, a fact that is not only public knowledge, but lately both parties even overtly flaunt how much they can bend the rules to their personal gain and nobody is even doing anything. Look at Biden, look at Trump. It’s a travesty.