Most people in the UK and Germany consider Elon Musk’s efforts to influence their national politics unacceptable and believe the US tech magnate does not know much about either country or the issues they face, a poll has shown.
The survey, by YouGov, follows a spate of hostile statements by the billionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X attacking the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and their respective governments.
The poll, of more than 2,200 people in each country, also found that majorities of 54% in both countries thought it was “not important” for their governments to cultivate a good relationship with Musk, and about 50% thought he was best ignored.
The survey found that only 13% of respondents in both countries saw Musk’s interventions in their politics as acceptable, with 69% in the UK and 73% in Germany saying the opposite. Most also thought his meddling in US politics was unacceptable.
Asked how well the billionaire understood their countries’ politics and the issues facing them, people were equally scathing: only about a fifth in each country said he knew “a great deal” or “a fair amount”, and 63% “not much” or “nothing at all”. A similar percentage thought he was ignorant of politics and issues in Europe in general.
In Germany, Musk drew fury weeks before federal elections with a remark on X claiming that only the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) could “save Germany”, followed by an op-ed in which he wrote that it was “clearly false” to call the party extreme.
He has also called Scholz, a Social Democrat, “an incompetent fool”, and Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an “anti-democratic tyrant”. Last week he heaped praise on the AfD leader, Alice Weidel, in an X live stream.
Musk has described the UK as a “tyrannical police state”, called Starmer “two-tier Keir” over allegations of judicial discrimination against far-right rioters, and described new farm inheritance tax rules as the UK “going full Stalin”.
He has said King Charles should dissolve parliament and the Labour prime minister be jailed for his alleged part in a grooming gangs scandal, calling Starmer “utterly despicable” and “deeply complicit in mass rapes in exchange for votes”.
The survey showed the X owner – a close ally of Donald Trump who, after spending $250m (£210m) to help get him re-elected, has been tasked by the incoming US president with helping cut the federal budget – was deeply unpopular in the UK and Germany.
The only exceptions were among voters for the AfD, which Musk has described as Germany’s “only spark of hope”, and Reform UK, the anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage to which Musk reportedly considered donating $100m.
Musk was uniquely popular among these voters, with 70% of AfD voters saying they had a favourable view of the billionaire compared with fewer than 20% of supporters of Germany’s other main parties.
Reform UK voters were less enthusiastic, possibly because Musk said this month that Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” and should be replaced as party leader, apparently because of a disagreement about the jailed far-right agitator Tommy Robinson.
However, Musk’s 47% favourability rating among Reform supporters was still significantly higher than the 26% he scored among Conservative voters and the mere 4%-5% among Labour and Liberal Democrat voters.
Reform and AfD voters were also much more likely to say Musk’s political interference was acceptable and that he should be cultivated – although only 18% of Reform voters and 19% of AfD voters thought he was influential in the UK or Germany.
Overall, more than 70% of respondents in both countries said they had a negative opinion of the pugnacious billionaire. However, few thought his interventions would change anything: barely a fifth thought he had much influence on national politics.
Asked how they thought Musk had managed X, formerly known as Twitter, which he bought for $44bn in 2022, only 16% of Britons and 19% of Germans said he had done so appropriately. Only 14%-15% said they now had a favourable view of the platform.
