U.S. billionaire Elon Musk publicly reiterated his support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) during the party’s election campaign launch in Halle on Saturday, urging European nations to take back control from Brussels and row back on multiculturalism.
Addressing a crowd of approximately 4,500 AfD supporters via live video link at the event, Musk emphasized the importance of national pride and self-determination.
“I believe it is very important that people are proud to be German. This is very important. And it’s good to be proud of German culture and German values,” Musk told the crowd as he warned against embracing “a kind of multiculturalism that waters everything down.”
The X owner insisted that Germany and other European countries should preserve their cultural identity.
Elon Musk‘s great speech at our party convention! Make America & Germany great again! 🇺🇸🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/XHtMIBfOYh
— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) January 26, 2025“We want to have unique cultures in the world. We don’t want everything to be the same everywhere. We want to have it where you can go to different countries and experience different cultures,” he said.
Addressing Germany’s history, Musk asserted that the country places too much emphasis on past guilt. “Children shouldn’t carry the blame for the sins of their parents or even their great-grandparents,” he said, encouraging Germans to look toward the future with optimism.
In addition to national identity, Musk, who is now advising the new Trump administration on government efficiency, criticized the European Union’s role in German affairs, echoing previous statements against bureaucratic control from Brussels.
“You want more self-determination for Germany and the countries in Europe and less from Brussels. There’s too much bureaucracy from Brussels, too much control from the global elite. There should be more determination from individual countries,” he told the crowd.
Concluding his speech, Musk underscored his hope for an AfD victory in next month’s federal elections, reinforcing his endorsement of Alice Weidel’s candidacy. “I think that would be very good for Germany. I hope the German people unite and strongly support the AfD.”
The appearance is the latest showing of support for the populist German party currently polling second ahead of the vote on Feb. 23, with Musk previously causing outrage among the German establishment for a high-profile X Spaces conversation held with Weidel, which legacy parties claimed gave the AfD co-leader a considerable platform to discuss her priorities without being challenged.
Weidel responded to this at the time, expressing her delight that she was finally being given an opportunity to talk candidly about what she stands for without it being misrepresented by the liberal mainstream media back in Germany.
Musk risked the wrath of the Berlin and Brussels elite when he first urged German voters to back the right-wing party in a post on X in which he claimed it was the only option to “save Germany.”
