OSLO (Reuters) -- Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Monday that he found it worrying that billionaire Elon Musk was involving himself in the political issues of countries outside of the United States.
Musk, a close ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, last month endorsed a German anti-immigration, anti-Islamic political party ahead of that country’s national elections in February, and recently made remarks on British politics.
“I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and huge economic resources involves himself so directly in the internal affairs of other countries,” Stoere told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
If Musk were to involve himself in Norwegian politics, the country’s politicians should collectively distance themselves from such efforts, Stoere said.
Musk, the world’s richest person, spent more than $250 million to help Trump get elected and has been tasked by Trump to prune the federal budget as a special adviser.
The German government last week accused Musk, who owns social media platform X and is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, of trying to influence Germany’s upcoming election with a guest opinion piece for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Musk’s support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany was a “logical and systematic” play by the billionaire for a weak Europe that will not be able to regulate as strongly.
On Sunday, Musk said Nigel Farage should quit as leader of Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party in an abrupt withdrawal of support by the U.S. billionaire for the Brexit campaigner who is trying to shake up the British political establishment again.
“The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk said on his social media platform X, a few hours after Farage described him as a friend who made Reform look “cool”.
Musk had seemingly backed Farage and posed for a photograph with him last month.
Reform won 4.1 million votes or 14% of the total and five seats in parliament in last July’s national election.
Farage has previously said he is in negotiations with Musk about the billionaire donating to Reform to help it challenge the dominant Labor and Conservative parties.