National Rally rejects Musk's "last hope" endorsement of Le Pen

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PARIS — France’s biggest far-right party isn’t that jazzed about an endorsement from the world’s first trillionaire.

After Elon Musk called presidential candidate Marine Le Pen “France’s last hope” in a post on X on Wednesday, her allies from her National Rally party were quick to downplay his backing as a matter that’s out of their hands.

Laurent Jacobelli, a spokesperson for and lawmaker from the National Rally, said on public radio Thursday that while he agrees with Musk’s statement, the party does not seek out overseas endorsements. The National Rally has taken a similar approach with Trump, keeping him at a distance and rebuffing support from Washington despite an ideological kinship.

“What matters isn’t the opinion of people abroad,” Jacobelli said. “It’s the opinion of the French people.”

The X, SpaceX and Tesla owner has in recent years regularly weighed in on European politics and offered support to anti-immigration right-wing and far-right groups, including the AfD in Germany and far-right provocateur Stephen Yaxley-Lennon , better known as Tommy Robinson, in the United Kingdom.

Musk’s politics and vision of free speech made him something of a hero among parts of the European right. National Rally MEP Thierry Mariani in 2023 even nominated Musk for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the EU’s top human rights award.

But Musk’s association with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is highly unpopular in France even among the far right, and controversies like his stiff-armed gesture that critics say resembled a Nazi salute have turned him into a black sheep in the country.

“These marks of support matter more to reporters than they do to voters,” Mariani told POLITICO. “We haven’t asked for anything.”

Added fellow National Rally MEP Fabrice Leggeri: “There is no reason to seek partnerships with foreign business leaders, particularly those outside Europe.”

Musk’s post also immediately sparked accusations of foreign interference in French politics and concerns over how he might use his social media platform to influence the campaign.

“Musk has every right to express himself. That’s not the issue. However, we need to ensure that the tools at his disposal do not skew the debate in France in favor of one candidate or another,” said Pascal Confavreux, spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who repeatedly feuded with Musk over the EU’s attempts to enforce social media regulations, echoed the point on X : “Elon Musk is backing Marine Le Pen. That’s his right. It’s now up to the authorities to ensure X’s algorithm in Europe doesn’t favor any candidate.”

A spokesperson for X did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

Leggeri told POLITICO he was concerned that Musk’s comments would lead his party’s critics to “wave the bogeyman of alleged algorithm manipulation” to undermine Le Pen’s campaign.

Leggeri was a fierce critic of the Romanian Constitutional Court’s decision to annul the results of the 2024 presidential election there after declassified intelligence documents showed that an ultranationalist candidate benefited from a TikTok campaign that was similar to influence operations run by the Kremlin in Ukraine and Moldova.