Far-right МEPs Nominated Musk for Top EU Human Rights Award
Right-wing politicians have nominated businessman and billionaire Elon Musk for the top EU human rights award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. This nomination comes from the "Identity and Democracy" political group in the European Parliament, which includes members associated with Marine Le Pen from France and Matteo Salvini from Italy, according to a document sent to MEPs on September 14th.
It is reported by Politico.
A representative from the group confirmed their decision to nominate Musk.
The parliamentary group cited Musk's move to release so-called Twitter files, which consisted of internal documents detailing how the social media platform handled requests to remove political posts. According to the lawmakers, this action represents "the defense of the principle of freedom of expression."
The Sakharov Prize includes a monetary reward of €50,000.
It's unlikely that Musk will receive the award, as the winner is chosen by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and leaders of all political groups. The three largest groups in the institution are the right-centrist European People's Party, the left-centrist S&D (Socialists and Democrats), and the liberal Renew.
By mutual agreement, they have proposed the candidacy of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman whose death at the hands of the police sparked a women's rights movement throughout the country.
The Greens in the European Parliament have nominated Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist, while the group of European Conservatives and Reformists has put forward Nino Lomjaria, a civil rights defender from Georgia who resisted Russian interference.
The left-wing group has proposed awarding the prize to three women's rights activists.
It's worth noting that last year, billionaire Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to shut down the Starlink satellite communication network near Crimea to thwart Ukraine's attack on the Russian naval fleet.
In his biography of the billionaire, journalist Walter Isaacson wrote that when "Ukrainian explosive-laden drones approached the Russian fleet, they lost contact and, without causing harm, ended up on the shore."