Elon Musk has backed the AfD in Germany and Nigel Farage's Reform UK in Britain, and praised Italy's right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

Elon Musk faced an angry backlash after calling for the release from prison of a far-right British activist. The world’s richest man tweeted “Free Tommy Robinson” to his 210 million X followers on Thursday.

X owner Elon Musk posted on the site: "Only the AfD can save Germany." Following the post, which had more than 50 million views at the time

Elon Musk backed Germany’s far-right Alternative for Deutschland party, known as the AfD, in an opinion piece published in a German newspaper on Saturday, wading deeper into international politics as the billionaire has become a fixture in Trump’s orbit.

In his opinion piece, Musk called the AfD "the last spark of hope" for Germany and argued in favor of the party's positions on energy, economic recovery and migration, saying they reflect "the principles that made Tesla and SpaceX successful," according to a Euronews translation.

The German government accused U.S. billionaire Elon Musk on Monday of trying to influence its election due in February with articles supporting the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, even though it suggested they amounted to "nonsense".

Musk called for fresh UK elections in the latest sign of how Donald Trump’s incoming US administration could be a thorn in the side of Keir Starmer’s government.

Elon Musk has called for the release of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson. The richest man in the world tweeted "Free Tommy Robinson!" to his 210 million followers on X on Thursday (January 2). At the time of writing,