Elon Musk tells Italians to have more children during an appearance at a political conference in Rome: 'Make more Italians'

• Elon Musk was the star guest at Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's political festival on Saturday.
• He urged Italians and other developed nations to have more children to protect their cultures.

Elon Musk was the guest of honor at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's "Atreju" political festival in Rome on Saturday evening.

Taking to the stage with X Æ A-12, one of his sons, in his arms, Musk told the crowd gathered at the Sant'Angelo Castle that Italy should be having more children.

"Make more Italians to save Italy's culture," he said at one point in the discussion when asked about Italy's immigration and demographics.

Musk said he was in favor of legal immigration but that alone would not solve the issue of population decline for industrialized nations.

"My advice to all government leaders and people is make sure you have children to create a new generation," he said, "or the culture of Italy, Japan and France will disappear."

"We are in danger of no longer having these countries," Musk, who has previously said he viewed "population collapse due to low birth rates" as more dangerous than global warming, added.

The SpaceX founder has a personal interest in the future of Italy and Europe, people involved in his travel plans said, Bloomberg reported.

This year birth rates in Italy are expected to hit a new record low, falling for the 15th consecutive year. Meloni pledged 1 billion euros to address the issue, per Reuters.

Musk has 11 known children, two of whom were born through a surrogate, a practice which Giorgia Meloni's party recently wanted to define as a "universal crime," per Politico.

At the event, the X owner also commented on the recent exodus of advertisers from his social media platform, saying they were a symptom of the "woke mind virus" that was infecting the US and was on its way to Italy.

But he claimed it was a "short-term issue" for his company.

"I think X will be fine, and we are actually already seeing advertisers return to X. Brand advertisers are always worried about their brand," he said.

The annual Atreju event, which has been running since 1998, was organized by Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy.

Speaking after Musk was British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Previous years have seen Steve Bannon and Hungary's far-right leader Viktor Orbán feature as guests.