BERLIN: Billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday waded into German politics at a time of a heated debate on immigration across Europe, saying Berlin-funded migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean could be seen as an "invasion" of Italy.
As the German foreign ministry hit back, he intensified his criticisms, saying that "if a government in a democracy goes against the will of the people, it should be voted out."
Berlin is locked a row with Italy over the NGO sea operations, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday demanding that charity ships disembark the rescued migrants in their own countries.
Musk shared a post on X by a user identified as "Radio Genoa" that blasted German NGO operations in the Mediterranean and expressed hope that "AfD wins the elections to stop this European suicide".
The foreign ministry prompted the social media platform's boss to sharpen his criticism, writing in another post early on Saturday: "Frankly, I doubt that a majority of the German public supports this.
Meloni recently wrote a letter of complaint to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to express her "amazement" about Berlin funding charities helping irregular migrants in her country.
Asked about the letter, Berlin confirmed that it was providing between 400,000 euros and 800,000 euros each to two projects relating to migrants.
The projects were "for the support on land in Italy of people rescued at sea and an NGO project for sea-rescue operations".
At a press conference this week following talks with her Italian counterpart, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock defended Berlin's backing of rescue missions.
"Volunteer sea rescuers have a life-saving task in the Mediterranean," she said.
"They are committed to countering the deaths in the Mediterranean with humanity, precisely because the European joint sea rescue service Mare Nostrum no longer exists," she added, referring to the Italian government's year-long operation which rescued more than 100,000 migrants before ending in 2014.
Ahead of regional elections on October 8 in the states of Bavaria and Hesse, immigration has also emerged as a key topic, with Bavarians citing it as the most important subject in a latest poll.
Scholz acknowledged in an interview with newspaper group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland that the numbers of asylum seekers is "currently too high".
His government is "completely in agreement that irregular migration in the European Union should be stopped," he said in the interview published on Thursday. — AFP
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