Topline<\/p>\n
National Rally, a far-right political party in France whose leader is running for president in next year\u2019s election, on Thursday distanced itself from the endorsement of billionaire Elon Musk who earlier this week dubbed Marine Le Pen \u201cFrance\u2019s last hope.”<\/p>\n
Elon Musk speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 22, 2026. <\/p>\n
AFP via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s endorsement has been slammed by French leaders as \u201cforeign interference\u201d and on Thursday the group he supported seemed to agree, with spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli telling public radio<\/a> his party doesn\u2019t seek international support. <\/p>\n Jacobelli said \u201cit\u2019s the opinion of the French people\u201d that matters and seemed to distance National Rally from Musk, whose alignment with President Donald Trump has made him unpopular in France, even among the far right. <\/p>\n In response to Musk’s tweet endorsing Le Pen, French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot<\/a> urged him to reconsider his position and French parliamentarian Antoine L\u00e9aument, of the far left, described<\/a> Musk’s post as “foreign interference\u201d and called on regulators to act before the election could be \u201cmanipulated\u201d on social media. <\/p>\n Thierry Breton<\/a>, former European Commissioner and former French economy minister, called Musk\u2019s post “meddling” and suggested Musk\u2019s endorsement could cause the algorithm of X, the social media site he owns, to “favor” Le Pen.<\/p>\n KEY BACKGROUND<\/p>\n While Musk still has supporters in France, particularly among some free-market, tech and right-wing voters, the overall tone of French media and political discourse has become increasingly negative toward the world\u2019s richest man. French President Emmanuel Macron publicly joined other European leaders in criticizing Musk<\/a> for what they said were attempts to influence political conversations in Europe. France has also taken a relatively aggressive stance toward regulating online platforms and has investigated<\/a> X over allegations related to algorithmic transparency, moderation practices, personal data handling, and the spread of harmful content, moves Musk has characterized as politically motivated. <\/p>\n TANGENT<\/p>\n Musk has often supported right-wing and far-right groups and candidates, including Rupert Lowe\u2019s Restore Britain<\/a> party and Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany<\/a> party. He’s also been accused of amplifying far-right voices in Europe, including extremist Tommy Robinson<\/a> and Ashlea Simon<\/a>, co-founder of the white supremacist group Britain First. After he endorsed Alternative for Germany, former German chancellor Olaf Scholz<\/a> called Musk’s involvement in German politics “completely unacceptable.” Friedrich Merz, current chancellor of Germany, also criticized Musk’s endorsement of AfD despite being on the center-right himself. <\/p>\n FORBES VALUATION<\/p>\n Musk earlier this year became the world’s first trillionaire after taking his rocketmaker company SpaceX public. As of Thursday, he’s worth an estimated $855.6 billion. <\/p>\n further readingForbesWisconsin Officials Find Probable Cause Elon Musk Violated Election Bribery LawsBy Sara Dorn<\/a>ForbesMusk Boosts Controversial Film Which Sees Vigilante Target Immigrant CriminalsBy Siladitya Ray<\/a>ForbesGermany\u2019s Leader Blasts Musk\u2019s Support For Right-Wing Global Politicians\u2014Here\u2019s Where Else He\u2019s IntervenedBy Sara Dorn and Derek Saul<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline National Rally, a far-right political party in France whose leader is running for president in next year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31024,4442,5,282,2645,2967],"class_list":["post-52405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-billionaire","tag-elon-musk","tag-france","tag-french-politics","tag-marine-le-pen","tag-national-rally"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}