Polish government urges not to buy Tesla due to Musk’s statements

A Polish minister has urged Poles not to buy Tesla cars owned by Elon Musk because of the American billionaire’s statements at the event of the far-right Alternative for Germany.

Slawomir Nitras, Poland’s Minister of Sports and Tourism, made this claim, according to Polsat News.

According to him, “No normal Pole should buy a Tesla anymore.”

Musk claimed that Germany “pays too much attention to past guilt,” referring to the guilt of Nazi crimes.

“Children should not be blamed for the sins of their great-grandparents, and it is very important that people in Germany are proud to be Germans,” the billionaire said.

In response, the Polish minister noted that “perhaps Mr. Musk and his billions do not feel threatened, but any normal person living in the center of Europe who remembers what happened eighty years ago cannot look on indifferently.”

“This is a hydra that can be reborn. Especially on a day like the day of the liberation of Auschwitz, we must remember this and loudly bear witness to the truth,” the Polish minister stressed in the morning’s TOK FM radio program.

Nitras noted that such a statement “bears witness to Musk, not to Germany.” He also expressed hope that “maybe even these statements by Musk will cause the AfD to get a worse result than the polls showed, because, after all, no one likes to be meddled with in their internal affairs.”

“Because, after all, no one likes to be interfered with in their internal affairs. This is clearly interference in Germany’s internal affairs,” the minister said.

Musk’s statement was then commented on by AfD leader and the party’s candidate for chancellor Alice Weidel. “People, did you hear that? Americans are making their country great again and we are making our country great again. Make Germany great again! (“Let’s make Germany great again,” a reference to Donald Trump’s election slogan, which was “Let’s make America great again” – ed.),” she exhorted.

Musk has endorsed the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. At the party’s official campaign launch in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, he connected remotely from the US.

Musk had already endorsed the AfD, writing on the X platform that “it’s the only party that could save Germany.” He also spoke live with Weidel on X. Critics accuse him of using his huge reach on the platform to influence the outcome of Germany’s federal elections.

Germany’s parliamentary elections will be held on February 23. In the polls, the AfD is in second place behind the CDU/CSU Christian Democrats.

Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, referring to statements made by Elon Musk and German AfD leader Alice Weidel, said that “the words … about ‘Greater Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” especially “a few hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”