Most Europeans "Dislike Musk"... Far-Right Shows Notable Favorability

The majority of Europeans surveyed perceive Elon Musk, the owner of the social networking service X (formerly Twitter) and CEO of Tesla, as 'unfavorable.'

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On the 20th (local time), polling firm Harris Interactive released the results of an online survey conducted from the 14th to the 16th among adults in five European countries: France (1,000 people), Germany (1,021 people), Italy (1,000 people), the United Kingdom (1,024 people), and Sweden (998 people), commissioned by the investment fund Frst.

The survey results showed that negative views of Musk generally outweighed positive opinions. In Germany, only 33% expressed a favorable opinion of Musk, the lowest among the five countries. Nearly 60% responded unfavorably. This appears to be influenced by Musk's public support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of next month's German general election, as well as his mockery and insults directed at the current government leadership.

Negative public opinion in other European countries was also identified as 53% in France, 54% in the UK, and 48% in Sweden. Positive evaluations in France, the UK, and Sweden were uniformly low at 36%.

In contrast, in Italy, favorable opinions of Musk were 51%, higher than the 41% unfavorable. Previously, Prime Minister Meloni stated that Musk does not pose a threat to democracy and claimed that figures like Wall Street billionaire George Soros are the ones interfering in other countries' politics.

Responses also sharply divided according to political orientation. In Germany, 72% of respondents politically close to the AfD line expressed favorable views of Musk, and among supporters of the hard-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) led by Prime Minister Meloni, positive responses reached up to 82%. In France, 56% of supporters of the far-right National Rally (RN) also evaluated Musk positively.

As expected, unfavorable opinions were higher among the left-wing camp. However, radical left supporters evaluated Musk more favorably compared to supporters of the relatively moderate left-wing Green Party and Socialist Party. In France, 68% and 71% of Socialist and Green Party supporters respectively viewed Musk unfavorably. Among supporters of the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI), this rate was only 56%.

In Germany, unfavorable responses within the radical left were the lowest at 57%. Negative public opinion among Green Party and Social Democratic Party supporters was 81% and 80%, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.