Elon Musk told a gathering of the hard-right Alternative for Germany party this weekend that the country has “too much of a focus on past guilt,” an apparent effort to wipe away the long shadow of the Nazis that has influenced generations of Germans to quarantine extreme political parties from public life.
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything” Mr. Musk said in a short video that was broadcast to thousands of party members in the eastern city of Halle.
“We don’t want everything to be the same everywhere where it’s just one big sort of soup,” Mr. Musk said. “You know, we want to have something where it’s, you go to different countries and you experience a different culture and it is unique and special and good and — that the German government takes actions to protect its citizens and makes sure that it seeks the health and well-being of the German people.”
Mr. Musk’s comments came on Saturday, two days before official ceremonies in Poland commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, one of the most significant days of memorial on the German calendar. His critics in Germany sharply criticized his words and his timing.
“The enthusiasm of the native South African Elon Musk for German right-wing radicals, for German pride, German people and German hand signals is remarkable,” the journalist Mathieu von Rohr wrote sarcastically in Spiegel, one of Germany’s most important newsmagazines.
Mr. Musk himself recently stirred controversy in Germany and elsewhere by giving what was widely interpreted as a Nazi salute to a rally of supporters after Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
The billionaire, an adviser to President Trump, endorsed the so-called AfD party in a post on his social media platform X late last year, later citing its stance on migration, energy policy and other issues. He has ramped up his support since, while attempting to portray the party and its leadership as reasonable.
In doing so, he has brushed aside years of flirtations with Naziism and other actions by AfD members that have led Germany’s mainstream political parties to unite in opposition to working with the organization.
German intelligence agencies have formally classified parts of the AfD as extremists. A party leader was convicted last year of using banned Nazi language. Members of the party, including a former member of the federal parliament, have been implicated in several plots to overthrow the German government.
Mr. Musk, though, has praised the AfD repeatedly. He hosted its candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, for a friendly interview this month on X. He addressed a party conference over the weekend by video link, saying the party had the support of the “Trump administration.”
He went on to invoke Germany’s history dating back to the Roman Empire, citing Julius Caesar’s praise for the Germanic warriors he encountered in battle. He called the AfD’s proposals “common sense” and accused the current German government of oppressing free speech and dissent. He said the world needed less centralized governance, including that from the European Union in Brussels, and stronger governance from individual countries.
“The fate of the world, I think rests upon this election in Germany,” Mr. Musk said. “It’s extremely fundamental.”
Despite Mr. Musk’s endorsement, the AfD has not gained much ground in opinion polls ahead of the Feb. 23 parliamentary election. Since Mr. Musk backed the party in a December post, the percentage of voters who say they will vote for the party has only increased by one point, to 21 percent.
Still, the AfD currently sits in second place, behind the main opposition party, the Christian Democrats, but ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats.
Late in 2023, before the hard-right party was shook by a number of scandals, including the legal convictions of a regional leader for using banned Nazi phrases, the party was polling at 23 percent.
All other parties in parliament have vowed not to include the AfD in the formation of a new government after the election.
Recent polling shows that three-quarters of Germans see Mr. Musk’s attempts to influence German elections as “unacceptable.” The same poll found that 63 percent of respondents thought Mr. Musk did not have a good understanding of German politics.