X owner Elon Musk took aim at the newly approved European Commission on Wednesday, calling the body “undemocratic,” the latest of a series of his public critiques of European Union institutions and policymaking.
“The EU parliament should vote directly on matters, not give up authority to the EU commission,” Musk, a close adviser to United States President-elect Donald Trump, posted to social media after members of the European Parliament green-lit the new Commission cohort.
But the Parliament does get the chance to vote directly on the European commissioners. Together with national government representatives in the EU Council, members of the Parliament also decide how EU laws in most policy areas take shape.
On Wednesday, Parliament approved the set of 26 commissioners, with 370 MEPs voting in favor, 282 voting against and 36 abstaining. Their confirmation marked the end of a monthslong transition process, which began with June’s European election and saw weeks of political infighting between the bloc’s left- and right-wing groups.
Commissioners — one from each EU country — are nominated by the heads of each national government. The Commission president, in this case Ursula von der Leyen, then assigns the policy portfolios to each of the nominees.
The picks are then quizzed by MEPs and voted on individually by the Parliament’s political groups, representatives of which can approve or reject each of the candidates. Then the cohort is voted on once again as a whole by the 720 lawmakers, during a plenary session in Strasbourg.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur has a history of liberally sharing his opinions on the political processes of other countries on his social media platform, X. In October, Musk got into an online spat with outgoing European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová, calling her “the epitome of banal, bureaucratic evil” after she dubbed him the “promoter of evil” amid ongoing regulatory fights relating to his tech platform.
Just this Monday, Musk took aim at the United Kingdom’s Labour government, labeling it a “tyrannical police state” and sharing a petition calling for an immediate general election. In July, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was elected in a landslide.
Musk’s political involvement took an exponential leap this summer when he threw his support behind Trump’s candidacy for U.S. president and poured millions of dollars into funding the Trump campaign. Ever since, Musk has been a close adviser to the president-elect, even accompanying him during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and reportedly meeting with Iran’s envoy to the United Nations.
