Over the past two months, naughty posters have begun to appear all over London.
On one side of the East London bus stop, one of them showed Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, showing off from Tesla’s rooftops, his fingers were directed toward a straightforward tribute. “From 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds,” the ad reads. “Tesla. Swasca.”
Another mock ad to Mr. Musk and President Trump in front of the Red Tesla, which read: “Right now with white power steering.” In North London, a fake movie billboard shouted: “Fast and führer”, and Mr. Musk's photo next to Tesla next to Tesla has a Madoc license plate, a federal agency he currently leads on behalf of Mr. Trump's budget tug.
A billboard raised by a self-proclaimed group that everyone hates Elon warns: “Parents' guidance.” “Tesla's CEO is a far-right activist. Don't give him your money.”
Throughout the British capital and several European cities, Mr. Musk's iconic business has become the target of the same political outrage that has exacerbated Tesla's automobile's destruction in the United States and sometimes violent protests at his dealers.
There are some unruly protests and vandalism in Europe. However, many anti-Musk sentiments were in the form of political satire, which had flourished in Britain since at least the 18th century.
Just outside Berlin, an organization called the “Center of Political Beauty” used high-power lamps to project the word “heil” onto the side of the Tesla factory in order to read “Heil Tesla” in a speech in Washington, and photos of Mr. Musk paying tribute. In Italy, street art depicts Elon Musk taking off his mask and showing Adolf Hitler's face below. The word “Elon Mask” appears above the picture.
“There has never been a goal like this,” said John Gorenfeld, a software engineer. Over the past few weeks, the group has organized protests by dozens of people. They have a “Honor, if you hate Elon” posted along the highway. They printed bumper stickers for Tesla owners, with phrases like “Don’t make the same mistake” and “Models before 2020”.
“No one is so rich and powerful, and it's cruel,” Mr. Gorenfeld said. “Musk's toxic brand is somewhat damn and ridiculous. It opens up the real space of ridicule.”
In Europe, Mr. Musk is not only a distant example of American wealth and power. Over the past year, he has become a regular political trash, often representing the far-right reasons on his social media platform X, where he has 218 million followers.
In the UK, Mr. Musk is known for sharing misinformation about the child rape scandal and called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to go to jail. He called for the release of Tommy Robinson, a far-right anti-immigrant instigator who was jailed for tempting the court. He criticized a neo-Nazi seven-year prison sentence, who incited and participated in anti-immigration riots last summer.
Small anti-Musk groups that popped up across Europe have the same basic goal: Tank Tesla’s share price and sales are the way to send messages to Mr. Musk and other super-rich people who are considering promoting far-right politics around the world. Some groups have refused to be interviewed about their actions, citing fears of being the target of Mr. Musk’s anger on social media. But others are more open to their goals.
“It’s about showing Musk and other billionaires that they are vulnerable and cannot act with punishment,” said Ben Stewart, the founder of a British group of satirical activists led by Donkeys, who has worked with the Center of Polition Beauty to project as Mr. Musk’s Berlin factory. “We have to use global opinion to back down.”
Organizers think it is working. Tesla's stock price has almost dropped since December, around the time Mr Musk began his high-profile role to oversee the firing of government workers and cut federal agency budgets. This week, Tesla reported a 13% drop in sales compared to a year ago.
“What they're trying to do is put a lot of pressure on me, I think on Tesla, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,” Musk said in Wisconsin last week.
However, he shrugged, adding: “Long-term, I think Tesla stock will do well, so maybe it's a buying opportunity.”
Protesters who spoke of the target said they wanted to challenge Mr. Musk's influence without resorting to the vandalism called by billionaires in the United States, calling it “coordinated violence against a peace company.”
London resident Theodora Sutcliffe helped organize Tesla's strike, and he said none of the people she worked with participated in the violence. Instead, they try to find other ways to attract public attention.
During one of their protests, a wavy, 20-foot balloon man pays vaguely tribute to the air like Mr. Musk. At other times, Ms. Sacliffe and her protesters left the flightster on the windshield of Tesla cars.
“Once upon a time, Tesla was cool,” said one Freer. “Now, sadly, it's not. Driving Tesla and using a Tesla charger means you're supporting Elon Musk, a person who promotes climate deniers and fossil fuel addicts.”
“If you want to drive a virus in the UK, I think it has to be smart,” Ms. Sutcliffe said. “That's our usual sense of humor.”
Berlin's anti-Musk efforts were led by Philipp Ruch, artistic director of the German radical group Political Beauty Center. He said in an interview that much of his anger at Mr. Musk in Germany stems from billionaires’ support for the country’s far-right parties, namely, Germany’s alternative.
“He paid tribute to Hitler on the first day of the government's entry,” Rutch said. “This is something we can't stand politically and artistically.”
Mr. Ruch performed many of his protests by “covering” an image with another image. At the Tesla dealership, he used lights to superimpose Mr. Musk's words and images to create new artistic creations. (He said police are now investigating his efforts, which are visible for about an hour.) Photos of the building are widely circulated on social media.
Other efforts have become popular.
The simulated car air freshener is called “Musk-b-gone” and is expected to cover the “fascist stench”. Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump’s cardboard cutouts, thanks to Tesla owners for their support when they fill the car on the company’s supercharged batch.
“Some people come to Musk as if he was some kind of passive agent of Trump, and that's actually just another way to go to Trump,” Ms. Sutcliff said. “There are others who think Musk is a unique threat that we've never actually seen in terms of economic control and control of the information space.”
