Polish PM Tusk criticises “ominous” Musk remarks at AfD rally

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Elon Musk has drawn sharp criticism in Poland after urging Germans to “move beyond” their guilt over Nazi crimes during a speech at an election campaign event for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The billionaire’s comments, which included a call for Germans to “be proud of German culture, German values,” were condemned by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as “ominous” given their timing, just hours before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Sports minister Sławomir Nitras joined Tusk in denouncing Musk’s remarks, calling for a consumer boycott of Tesla vehicles in Poland. Nitras warned that indifference in the face of such comments could embolden political extremism across Europe.

During the AfD event, which was held on Saturday ahead of Germany’s federal elections in February, Musk addressed the 4,500 attendees in a live video.

In an apparent reference to Germany’s Nazi past, he argued that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great grandparents” and that “there is too much focus on past guilt”.

Following Musk’s remarks, the AfD co-leader and chancellor candidate Alice Weidel praised the Tesla CEO, telling the crowd “the Americans are making their country great again, and we are making our country great again. Make Germany great again!”, reported German daily Bild.

In response, Tusk highlighted the “ominous” undertones of Musk’s comments, made just two days before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the former Nazi German concentration camp.

“The words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous. Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,” he said on X.

Nitras, meanwhile, criticised Musk’s involvement in German politics, describing it as meddling in the country’s internal affairs.

“No normal Pole should buy a Tesla anymore. There needs to be a serious and tough response to this, including something like a consumer boycott,” Nitras said during a broadcast on radio station TOK FM.

He warned against complacency, stating that “any normal person living in the centre of Europe, who remembers what happened 80 years ago, cannot look away. This is a hydra that can be reborn.”

The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, half of whose MEPs are part of the AfD’s Europe of Sovereign Nations group in the European Parliament, rejected suggestions that it would also seek Musk’s support ahead of Poland’s presidential elections in May.

“Confederation would be a natural object of interest for a businessman with a political temperament like Elon Musk,” Krzysztof Bosak, one of the party’s leaders and a deputy parliamentary speaker, told broadcaster Polsat.

“On the other hand, frankly speaking, it is not our style of politics to intrude upon some businessman, even the richest in the world,” he added.

Musk’s role in promoting the AfD has drawn widespread criticism, with detractors accusing him of leveraging his ownership of X to sway election outcomes.

Earlier this month, in response to a question about whether Musk would seek to influence Poland’s presidential vote, foreign minister Radosław Sikorski warned that interfering in Polish elections from abroad is illegal. “We must protect our democratic process so that Poles, not foreigners, choose our president,” he added.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Kancelaria Premiera / flickr.com (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.