Elon Musk wants to be the Italian government’s sole telecommunications provider.
The billionaire’s SpaceX company is closing in on a $1.6 billion security contract after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday. The Italian government promises that Meloni didn’t talk to Musk about the deal while she was there.
If enacted, Musk’s SpaceX would supply Italy with encryption services for government and military use. “Ready to provide Italy the most secure and advanced connectivity!” Musk wrote on his X platform.
Others within the Italian government aren’t as enthusiastic about the potential deal.
“If 1.5 billion euros of Italian money to use the satellites of an American billionaire in our country is the price to pay for his friendship, we do not agree,” said center-left Democratic Party (PD) lead Elly Schlein.
Musk’s eagerness to do business with the Italian government is unsurprising considering the right-wing neo-fascist who currently leads it. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni considers Musk a “genius.” Her crusades against immigration, same-sex marriage, reproductive rights, and anything else she considers “woke,” have endeared her to Musk, who has been attaching himself to the European right as of late.
This telecommunications deal is just the latest installment in Musk’s attempted Eurozone takeover. The CEO has meddled in German elections, singing the praises of it’s own right-wing party (AfD) as German politicians denounce his involvement. And in the U.K. Musk has been calling for the release of Tommy Robinson, a popular far-right, Islamaphobic activist and founding member of the British National Party. He has also railed about how civil war is “inevitable” there.
The world’s richest man is rapidly expanding his sphere of political influence—and raking in foreign cash in the process. Elon Musk is changing global politics. And he’s getting even richer in the process.
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