Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre denounced Elon Musk’s growing involvement in international politics as the tech titan continues to intervene in world affairs.
Musk, a top ally of President-elect Donald Trump, has attracted attention in recent weeks for backing Germany’s right-wing Alternative fur Deutschland party and calling on the United Kingdom to embrace crucial leadership changes.
Responding to a question Monday about whether he was concerned Musk would insert himself into Norwegian politics, Støre replied, “I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and large financial resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries.”
“This is not how it should be between democracies and allies,” Støre told NRK, Norway’s state broadcaster.
Støre has led Norway’s left-leaning Labour Party since 2014. He is facing a falling out in the country and plummeting favorability ratings ahead of the September elections, with some party members calling on the prime minister to resign.
The political environment in Norway resembles those of Germany and the U.K., where Musk called for change as the ruling left-leaning parties faced declining approval ratings from the public.
In Germany, Musk has endorsed AfD as an alternative to the country’s left-wing Social Democratic Party, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. As they face growing competition from the right-leaning party, top German officials have condemned Musk’s move, accusing him of “trying to influence the federal election.” Ahead of Germany’s February elections, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX will hold a live discussion this week on his platform, X, with AfD’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel.
Musk has also called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign. The tech mogul is instead backing the alternative UK Reform party, but he has called on Nigel Farage, the group’s leader, to be replaced, saying “he doesn’t have what it takes.”
Similar to the U.K. and Germany, momentum for the political Right has grown in Norway as polling shows the country is increasingly disillusioned with the current government.
“This is a crisis, we can’t talk around that,” Hedda Foss Five, the Labour-aligned mayor of Skien, Norway, told NRK in September 2023 after she was ousted by Marius Roheim Aarvold, who capitalized on widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo to become the municipality’s first conservative mayor in roughly two decades. “I don’t think our politics are working, they’re not helping people, and they don’t think they’re important.”
Polling released in November 2024 revealed Norway’s right-leaning Progress Party, or FrP, led by Sylvi Listhaug, has gained significant momentum with voters, according to an analysis by NRK. The populist FrP favors policies including downsizing government bureaucracy, reforming immigration, and reducing taxes.
“I think people see that FrP is absolutely necessary if we are to get a new course,” Listhaug told the outlet. “Labour and the Conservative Party have become quite similar to each other in some areas.”
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However, if Musk throws his weight behind FrP, he can expect to face immediate backlash from the country’s incumbent elected officials.
“If we were to see [political involvement from Musk] in Norway, I hope and assume that a united Norwegian political environment would warn and distance itself from it,” Støre said.
