Tech mogul Elon Musk ignited fresh controversy on Saturday by demanding the outright dissolution of the European Union, arguing that restoring full sovereignty to member states would enable governments to more effectively serve their citizens, in a stark intervention that risks further straining ties between his platform X and Brussels regulators.
The South African-born billionaire, whose fortune stems from Tesla and SpaceX, aired the provocative stance in a post on X, the social media site he acquired in 2022.
“The EU should be abolished, and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,” Musk wrote, encapsulating a view that echoes longstanding Eurosceptic critiques of the bloc’s supranational structures.
The declaration arrives against a backdrop of simmering discord within the 27-nation union, where nationalist surges in countries like France, Germany and Italy have amplified calls for treaty overhauls, particularly on thorny issues such as migration quotas and fiscal harmonisation. Despite broad public backing for the EU’s economic benefits, polls indicate rising frustration with perceived overreach from Brussels.
Musk’s outburst also coincides with escalating regulatory scrutiny of X under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), enacted to combat online harms. The European Commission has initiated investigations into X’s handling of disinformation, transparency lapses and content moderation, threatening fines up to six percent of the company’s global revenue – potentially billions of euros – for alleged violations.
Critics swiftly pounced on the timing, suggesting Musk’s rhetoric amounted to retaliation against oversight he has derisively branded as “censorship.” One prominent X user, @OopsGuess, fired back in a viral thread: “If abolishing supranational authority is ‘freedom,’ then surely the U.S. should also dissolve itself, return sovereignty to each state, let Texans speak for Texas, Californians for California, and stop Washington from governing 330 million people like a single empire.”
The user pressed further: “You want the EU broken for ‘democracy,’ yet a continental federation under one capital sounds perfectly natural when the capital is yours. Freedom isn’t decentralization only when applied to others. If fragmentation is a virtue, lead by example, disband America first.”
Pro-Musk voices, however, lauded the post as a bold stand against bureaucratic excess. “Centralized EU power has become unaccountable and distant from everyday Europeans,” one supporter commented, aligning with arguments from figures like Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who has repeatedly clashed with EU institutions over rule-of-law concerns.
As of Saturday evening, neither the European Commission nor EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had issued a direct response, though diplomats privately dismissed Musk’s input as “uninformed meddling” from a non-European outsider. The bloc, which boasts a combined GDP exceeding $18 trillion, has weathered similar abolitionist barbs before, most notably from Brexit architects in the UK.
Musk, 54, has increasingly positioned himself as a geopolitical commentator, leveraging X’s 600 million users to opine on everything from US elections to global conflicts. His latest salvo underscores the outsized sway of Silicon Valley titans in international affairs, prompting fresh debates on whether tech leaders should wield such influence unchecked.
With EU parliamentary elections looming in 2029, Musk’s words could embolden far-right factions, even as they highlight the union’s resilience in the face of populist headwinds.
