The owner of X has regularly boosted right-wing and far-right European politicians.
PARIS — The world’s richest man has given the leader of the French far right his quasi-endorsement ahead of the country’s crucial presidential election next year.
“She is France’s last hope,” wrote Elon Musk, the owner of X, on the social media platform Wednesday, in a post referring to far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s favorable polling figures.
Le Pen formally launched her fourth bid for president last week after being cleared to run by an appeals court despite being found guilty of embezzling funds from the European Parliament — a charge she continues to dispute and is challenging before a higher jurisdiction.
Musk, who is also the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, has regularly weighed in on European politics via social media, offering support to right-wing and far-right groups and candidates.
In May, he claimed Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain was the only party that could “save Britain,” and he has shared posts from British far-right activist Tommy Robinson on several occasions.
When it comes to French politics, however, Musk was yet to throw his weight behind a particular candidate.
After meeting with President Emmanuel Macron in 2022, Musk said he was “honored” to have spoken with the French leader, and he endorsed Macron’s unpopular 2023 decision to raise the minimum retirement age in France, which Le Pen is promising to roll back.
But Musk’s relationship with France also has a legal element. French police have opened a criminal investigation into X’s Grok AI chatbot over the proliferation of sexually explicit deepfakes and past antisemitic responses. X’s offices in Paris were raided in February, and Musk was summoned for an interview by French prosecutors in April, but he did not show up.