Immigration cannot solve the problem
of population decline in industrialised countries, billionaire
businessman and boss of X, formerly Twitter, said on Saturday.
"Immigration" cannot solve the declining "demographics" of
industrialised countries, Musk told the Atreju political
festival of Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party in Rome, citing the case of China, which will
lose 40% "of its population".
"My advice to all government leaders and people is: make sure
you have children to create a new generation," he said.
Musk has 11 known children with three different mothers, and he
took to the stage in Rome on Saturday with one of them in his
arms to make the point that "demographics is important".
Musk urged Italians and populations in other industrialised
countries to have children "or the culture of Italy, Japan and
France will disappear".
"We are in danger of no longer having these countries. Italy has
borders of course but it is made by Italians, by people," he
added.
Meloni has made reversing Italy's population decline one of the
key priorities of her government and the 2024 budget bill still
before parliament contains several measures in support of
families with children.
Musk told his audience at the political festival under the theme
'Welcome Back Italian Pride' that Italy is "an incredible
country" and "a good place to invest" but added that "companies
investing ask themselves: will there be enough people working?".
"Maybe I'm repeating myself but these are the facts," he added.
On the climate crisis, Musk claimed to be an "environmentalist"
but added that "we should not demonise oil and gas in the medium
term".
"I have the impression that in the short term we are
exaggerating on climate change," he said, also criticising
environmentalists for making people lose "faith in the future".
"We must continue to have hope," he added.
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