WARSAW — Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski on Saturday lambasted Elon Musk for urging the dissolution of the European Union, labeling the tech billionaire’s rhetoric “reckless and dangerous” after it garnered swift endorsement from Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev. The exchange, unfolding on Musk’s platform X, highlighted deepening transatlantic frictions over digital regulation, free speech, and European unity, just as Warsaw grapples with threats from Moscow and uncertainties in U.S. policy under President Donald Trump.
Musk’s inflammatory post came hours after the European Commission imposed a landmark €120 million ($140 million) fine on X for breaching the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), marking the first such penalty under the 2022 law aimed at curbing online harms. In a message pinned to his profile — reaching his 230 million followers — the world’s richest man declared: “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.” He followed up with barbs accusing the EU of “viscous censorship” and a “bureaucratic monster” stifling innovation, reposting calls for U.S. sanctions on Brussels and musing, “How long before the EU is gone?”
Medvedev, a vocal Kremlin hawk and former Russian president, amplified the sentiment with a terse reply: “Exactly.” The one-word endorsement, posted on his Telegram channel, underscored Moscow’s opportunistic glee at perceived Western divisions. Russian state media outlets framed Musk’s outburst as validation of President Vladimir Putin’s long-standing narrative that the EU is a crumbling entity vulnerable to collapse, especially amid ongoing sanctions over the Ukraine war. Medvedev later elaborated on Telegram, likening the EU to a “deranged animal” being tamed by Washington, suggesting U.S.–EU strains play into Russia’s hands by weakening NATO cohesion.
Sikorski, a seasoned diplomat and vocal defender of European integration, fired back on X: “As if anyone still had any doubts about who benefits from all this anti-EU talk about sovereignty. Those who want to profit from spreading hatred and those who want to conquer Europe.” In a subsequent post, he mocked Musk’s SpaceX ambitions, quipping, “Go to Mars. There’s no censorship of Nazi salutes there” — a pointed reference to a January 2025 controversy during Trump’s inauguration parade, where Musk’s arm-extended gesture was likened by critics to a fascist salute. The Polish minister’s intervention amplified Warsaw’s broader alarm over hybrid threats, including disinformation campaigns that exploit populist anti-EU voices to erode bloc solidarity.
The DSA fine, announced Friday by the Commission, stemmed from a two-year probe into X’s compliance failures. Regulators pinpointed three violations: the “deceptive design” of X’s paid blue checkmark system, which shifted from verifying authenticity to a subscription perk, potentially enabling scams by mimicking legitimacy; inadequate transparency in its advertising repository, obscuring targeted political ads; and restricted access for researchers to public data, hindering studies on misinformation. Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen declared, “Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU.” The penalty, calculated at €45 million for the checkmarks, €40 million for data access, and €35 million for ads, falls short of the DSA’s 6 % global turnover cap but signals Brussels’ resolve to police Big Tech.
Musk’s defiance escalated with threats of retaliation, vowing a “response” targeting “individuals who took this action against me” and invoking the Streisand Effect to mock EU secrecy. U.S. figures piled on: Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried the fine as an “attack on all American tech platforms and the American people,” while Vice President JD Vance warned against “EU commission censorship.” Senator Ted Cruz called it an “abomination,” urging Trump-era sanctions. This chorus reflects Trump’s “America First” pivot, as outlined in the December 2025 National Security Strategy, which dubs Europe a “stark prospect of civilizational erasure” and demands allies shoulder more defense burdens.
Sikorski’s rebuke resonated in Poland, a frontline NATO state that has poured billions in arms to Ukraine since 2022 and hosts 10,000 U.S. troops. Warsaw views anti-EU agitation as a Russian ploy to fracture the bloc, especially after vetoes by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán delayed €50 billion in Ukraine aid. Earlier Saturday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed these concerns in a speech on transatlantic ties, stating, “Dear American friends, Europe is your closest ally, not your problem. And we have common enemies. At least that’s how it has been in the last 80 years.” Tusk, who reclaimed power in 2023 after eight years of nationalist rule, urged reinforcing U.S.–EU partnerships against “external attempts to divide them,” amid Trump’s tariff threats and demands for NATO spending hikes to 5 % of GDP.
The spat unfolds as X hemorrhages European users — down 11 million from August 2024 to May 2025 — amid DSA scrutiny and Musk’s content moderation rollback, which critics say amplifies hate speech. EU officials, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, defend the DSA as essential for “restoring trust” in digital spaces, noting X’s violations exposed users to manipulation. In a parallel case, TikTok settled similar ad transparency charges Friday, agreeing to reforms without a fine.
Broader reactions poured in. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called Musk’s comments “irresponsible,” warning they fuel far-right parties like the AfD, which Musk has endorsed. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted support for the fine, stressing “sovereignty isn’t chaos.” On X, #AbolishTheEU trended with 1.2 million posts by Sunday, blending libertarian cheers and Russian bots, per cybersecurity firm Graphika.
For Poland, the episode crystallizes existential stakes. Bordering Ukraine and Belarus — where Moscow staged hybrid migrant crises in 2021 — Warsaw has fortified its “East Shield” with €2.5 billion in fortifications. Tusk’s government, juggling EU funds recovery post-PiS scandals, sees unity as deterrence: “In the face of Putin’s Russia, we need genuine solidarity,” he said last month at a Baltic summit. Analysts like Piotr Buras of the European Council on Foreign Relations warn that Musk’s rhetoric, amplified by Medvedev, risks “revisionist transatlanticism,” where U.S. nationalists and European populists erode shared values.
As winter bites in Warsaw, Sikorski’s words linger: inflammatory posts aren’t just tweets — they’re ammunition in a shadow war for Europe’s soul. With Trump’s team eyeing EU tariffs and Russia eyeing NATO’s flanks, the Musk–Medvedev alignment isn’t mere coincidence; it’s a canary in the coal mine of fracturing alliances. For now, Poland stands firm, but the echo of “Exactly” reverberates, a reminder that sovereignty’s price may be paid in division.
