HALLE: US tech billionaire Elon Musk gave a video address to a campaign rally of Germany’s anti-immigration AfD party on Saturday, his latest show of support ahead of the country’s election next month.

Musk told a gathering of thousands of AfD supporters in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany”. Some mainstream leaders who have accused Musk of interfering in European politics with comments on his social platform X about politicians in countries including Germany and Britain.

He also drew criticism this week for making a public hand gesture that was seen by some as resembling a straight-armed Nazi salute. “The German people are really an ancient nation which goes back thousand of years,” he said in Saturday’s address.

“I even read Julius Caesar was very impressed (by) the German tribes,” he said, urging the supporters to “fight, fight, fight” for their country’s future. He said the AfD wanted “more self-determination for Germany and for the countries in Europe and less from Brussels”, a reference to European Union authorities.

Musk is a close associate of US President Donald Trump, who has appointed him to head a new department of “government efficiency” in his administration. Like Trump, the AfD opposes immigration, denies climate change, rails against gender politics and has declared war on a political establishment and mainstream media it condemns as censorious.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2025