HALLE: US tech billionaire Elon Musk gave a video address to a campaign rally of Germany`s anti-immigration AfD party on Saturday, his latest show of support ahead of the country`s election next month.

Musk told a gathering of thousands of AfD supporters in the eastern city of Halle that their party was `the best hope for the future of Germany`. Some mainstream leaders who have accused Musk of interfering in European politics with comments on his social platform X about politicians in countries including Germany and Britain.

He also drew criticism this week for making a public hand gesture that was seen by some as resembling a straight-armed Nazi salute. `The German people are really an ancient nation which goes back thousand of years,` he said in Saturday`s address.

`I even read Julius Caesar was very impressed (by) the German tribes,` he said, urging the supporters to `fight, fight, fight` for their country`s future. He said the AfD wanted `more self-determination for Germany and for the countries in Europe and less from Brussels` a reference to European Union authorities.

Musk is a close associate of US President Donald Trump, who has appointed him to head a new department of `government efficiency` in his administration.

Like Trump, the AfD opposes immigration, denies climate change, rails against gender politics and has declared war on a political establishment and mainstream media it condemns as censorious.-AFP