U.S. Vice President JD Vance stunned the world and angered many European leaders in his speech to the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday. Outlining the Trump administration’s views on Europe, Vance denied that the greatest threat to the continent today is Russia or China, but said that it is rather the “threat from within” – by which he meant the globalist liberal elite.
Vance singled out former European Commissioner Thierry Breton’s recent claim that the upcoming German national elections could be overturned if the political right does well in the same way that Romania’s presidential election was overturned by that country’s courts in December as an example of how Europe had turned away from the essential values that once defined it.
The American vice president further spoke of cancel culture, suppression of conservatives’ free speech in many Western European countries (which he likened to censorship as practiced in the former Soviet Union), and mass immigration as problems facing Europe that need to be addressed – particularly if it wants to continue to rely on American support.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 13, 2025
Thierry Breton's statement on canceling Germany's elections translated to English.
Breton said if the EU Commission decides that the election in Germany was subject to "foreign interference," they would annul the election as they did in Romania's presidential election pic.twitter.com/3433nU8ya9
Vance’s criticism of Europe’s immigration policies came only a day after an Afghan migrant plowed his car into a left-wing demonstration in Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and injuring over 30 others, some seriously.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Munich and everybody affected by the evil inflicted on this beautiful community,” Vance told the attendees during his speech.
Vance also called on European governments to be more inclusive of right-wing political parties.
Not content with merely putting Europe’s liberal elite on notice, however, Vance went a step further and met with Alice Weidel, the co-chairwoman and parliamentary leader of Germany’s right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who is also presently a candidate for chancellor. This was coupled with Vance breaking with protocol and skipping a meeting with Germany’s current chancellor, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party. This move was unusual given that Scholz is the leader of the nation hosting the conference.
“We don’t need to see him, he won’t be chancellor long,” said one former U.S. official of the snub.
Vance’s meeting with Weidel came as a further shock to the liberal establishment given that the AfD is commonly referred to as an “extremist” party in their media. There have also been repeated calls for the AfD to be banned altogether in the Bundestag.
Exactly what the two discussed is not known given that it was a closed-door meeting, although Junge Freiheit has reported that the war in Ukraine as well as the German government’s “firewall” that was set up in an attempt to block the AfD’s rise were both on the agenda.
The meeting was substantial, lasting for approximately 30 minutes. Given that the AfD’s representatives had been excluded from the site of the Munich Security Conference, it took place at another hotel nearby.
Weidel praised Vance’s speech in Munich, deeming it “excellent,” and also shared it on her X account.
Even Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of the newly-founded left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice party (BSW), appreciated the fact that Vance’s words had ruffled the establishment. “It must have been a shock for the U.S.-dependent European establishment that an American vice president of all people is now giving them a dressing down concerning freedom of expression and cancel culture,” she said, according to the newspaper Bild. “That’s right!”
The AfD is expected to do well in the upcoming German elections, which will take place on Sunday, February 23.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 16, 2025
"Germany needs the AfD"
Young women are increasingly promoting the AfD party on TikTok.
Many of them feel increasingly unsafe in Germany, and they believe AfD is the answer. pic.twitter.com/iXemPYBV0c
