The salute immediately generated a viral and divided response, with online critics attacking Musk for the gesture and supporters minimizing its significance.

“I will start by talking about the response, or perhaps the lack of responses of the EU to Trump’s inauguration. It represents a threat to the whole of the European Union,” said French member of the European Parliament Manon Aubry, co-chair of The Left group, at a press conference Tuesday morning. “Let’s start by keeping things simple, I am sure everyone saw the Nazi salute, I select these words carefully, the Nazi salute of Elon Musk.”

In Germany, where Musk’s political backing for the far-right Alternative for Germany has already caused issues ahead of a snap election on Feb. 23, the government hit out over the controversial salute.

“I definitely don’t think highly of Elon Musk as a politician, from what we know so far. But such a gesture, given his already known proximity to right-wing populists in the fascist tradition, must worry every democrat,” said German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach from the center-left Social Democratic Party.

In Italy, popular journalist Roberto Saviano — famous for crusading against the mafia and, latterly, Italy’s right-wing government — rained down invective on the Tesla and SpaceX supremo.

“May you be cursed,” Saviano said. “The end of all this will be violent. His fall will be equal to that of those to whom it historically refers with this gesture. Musk will fall at the hands of those he now incites fueled by the same violence he practices.”