Musk warns of Italy's shrinking population at Meloni event

By Chiara Albanese, Alberto Brambilla and Eamon Akil Farhat,

When Giorgia Meloni first staged an annual political festival, her top guests were colleagues from her small, far-right party. On Saturday, star billing went to Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man.

A shrinking population poses a major risk to Italy’s workforce that can’t be addressed solely through immigration, Musk said in central Rome, adding that countries including Italy must maintain their cultural identities. Fears about climate change are “somewhat overblown” in the short term, he added.

The Tesla Inc. CEO and owner of the X social media network held one of his young sons in his arms as he took the stage at Meloni’s Atreju festival.

Addressing a packed audience gathered in Sant’Angelo Castle - once a prison and a fortress for popes - Musk said “it’s important to have children and create the new generation. As simple as it sounds, if people do not have children there is no new generation.”

The billionaire warned of the dangers of “woke mind-virus,” a favorite talking point, and of unchecked migration. He also said that X, formerly Twitter, was “already seeing advertisers return” after recent controversy over extremist content. “I think X will be fine,” he said.

Musk spoke amid a festive, Christmas market-like atmosphere, surrounded by fans of all ages who were also on hand to enjoy traditional Roman whipped cream maritozzi and pizza with porchetta, a spicy cured meat.

Even though Musk has recently met with several world leaders, his participation at Saturday’s gathering marks a rare appearance for the tech billionaire at a political event hosted by a single party — in this case, the Brothers of Italy group.

“Immigration isn’t enough to combat population shrinking,” he said. “There is value in cultures, we don’t want Italy as a culture to disappear, we want to maintain a reasonable cultural identity of those countries or they won’t be those countries,” Musk added. Italy’s birth rate hit a historical low last year.

Meloni’s event dates back to 1998 and is named after a key character in the novel and film The Neverending Story, reflecting the premier’s personal interest in fantasy literature.

Musk took the stage after Albania’s premier Edi Rama and ahead of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, pointing to the rising stature of an event once attended mostly by junior party officials.

The high-level line-up is a win for Meloni, just back from Brussels, where over a bottle of red wine she triangulated with France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz to unblock Hungary’s veto over Ukraine’s accession process to the EU, according to people familiar with the matter.

As the conference’s profile has risen recent editions have seen guests that included Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, as well as left-wing speakers including former Italian Premier Enrico Letta. Musk’s appearance followed a conversation on diversity and civil rights with LGBTQ activist Paola Concia.

The billionaire’s visit reflects his interest in Italy and cordial relations with Meloni, with whom he met privately for over an hour in June. They share concerns about Italy’s demographic crisis and the risks of artificial intelligence.

Musk traveled to Italy as he cares about the future of the country and of Europe more broadly, according to people involved in his travel plans. South African-born Musk believes Europe is rapidly losing its cultural identity, with European Union technocrats having a negative impact, according to people briefed on his thinking.

But there’s more to Musk’s connection with Italy. Earlier this year, press reports suggested Musk explored a possible fight against Meta Platform Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Rome’s Coliseum. Indeed, Saturday’s appearance comes just days after the social media platform Threads, a competitor to Musk’s X, was launched in the EU.

Musk’s trip comes as he faces questions over the health of his businesses. Earlier this week, Tesla filed a recall report covering more than 2 million vehicles after the top US auto-safety regulator determined its driver-assistance system Autopilot doesn’t do enough to prevent misuse.

Musk is also under increasing pressure after X generated little more than $600 million in advertising revenue in each of the first three quarters of the year, compared to more than $1 billion per quarter in 2022, Bloomberg reported.