ROME — Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk presented Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with the Global Citizen Award on Monday on behalf of the Atlantic Council, a progressive American think tank.
Meloni is “even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside,” Musk said, adding that “she has done an incredible job as prime minister of Italy,” leading the country to “record economic growth and employment.”
Meloni “is also authentic, honest, and sincere, something that cannot always be said of politicians,” Musk declared at the New York meeting.
After embracing Musk, Meloni responded by praising the Tesla founder’s “precious genius.”
“It was a great honor for me to receive this illustrious recognition, for which I thank the entire Atlantic Council,” Meloni wrote on X early Tuesday. “I am also deeply grateful to Elon Musk for his words of esteem and for having presented me with the award.”
According to Politico, Musk was invited to introduce Meloni “at the Italian prime minister’s request,” which reportedly created consternation among the think tank’s liberal staffers.
“Grazie, Elon,” Meloni posted in a separate tweet, embedding the video in which Musk presented her the award.
Meloni and Musk had already bonded over concerns about low natality rates in an hour-and-a-half meeting in Rome in June 2023. The Italian leader said it was a “great pleasure” to meet Musk, corroborated by photos of the two smiling and hugging.
Italy’s first female prime minister said, at the time, that the meeting was “very fruitful,” noting they had discussed crucial issues, such as innovation, the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence, European market rules, and shrinking birth rates.
In 2022, Musk famously tweeted that population collapse due to low birth rates “is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.”
Musk, also the founder of SpaceX, doubled down in January, insisting that underpopulation is a far greater concern for the world than overpopulation.
“Population collapse is an existential problem for humanity, not overpopulation!” he wrote on X.
More recently, Musk faced off with Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s chief censorship czar, who had threatened to harness the powers of the draconian Digital Services Act (DSA) against him if Musk broadcast his uncensored interview with former President Donald Trump on X.
The Frenchman stated:
I am writing to you in the context of recent events in the United Kingdom and in relation to the planned broadcast on your platform X of a live conversation between a US presidential candidate and yourself, which will also be accessible to users in the EU.
Breton said that Brussels would monitor the “dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate, and racism in conjunction with major political — or societal — events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.”
In his tongue-in-cheek response, Musk tweeted, “Bonjour!” adding in a separate post that “Thierry always reminds me of the French taunter from Monty Python.”
Breton may have overplayed his hand, however, and, not long afterward, he resigned from his post at the European Commission, apparently under pressure from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Commission reportedly refused to confirm or deny if von der Leyen had pushed for a replacement of Breton, merely observing that she “takes note and accepts the resignation” and “thanks him for his work.”
Even Pope Francis seemed to weigh in on the conflict, taking the side of Brussels in its efforts to rein in “disinformation” from free speech advocates like Musk and his X platform.
Addressing those “who work in platforms and in the field of artificial intelligence,” the pontiff told them to “put aside the arrogance of being above the law, be respectful and responsible regarding what circulates thanks to the platforms.”
“And I give you some advice: start paying taxes,” he added.
