US vice president JD Vance has launched a brutal ideological attack in Europe, accusing leaders of restraining freedom of speech and not halting illegal migration, and running in fear of voters’ true beliefs. Ta.
In his punitive speech on Friday, which openly questioned whether current European values justified US defenses, he sought a picture of European politics infected with media censorship, elections and political correctness. I drew it.
He argued that the real threat to Europe stems from Europe’s own internal retreat from some of its “most fundamental values,” rather than from outside parties such as Russia or China. He repeatedly questioned whether he no longer had a shared agenda. “What I’m worried about is the threat from within,” Vance said.
Speaking at the Security Conference in Munich, the vice-president was expected to address the key issues of the Ukrainian war and the differences between security in Washington and Europe. Instead, he slid across these widely and lectured on how he claimed that the continent had not listened to the concerns of voter populist voters.
Vance said of Donald Trump’s reelection: “There’s a new sheriff in town,” he said.
The fierce confrontational remarks were met with shock at the meeting and later denounced by the EU and Germany, garnering praise from Russian state television. They showed that beyond the various perceptions of Russia, the transatlantic cracks deepened into a deeper social rupture of values and the nature of democracy.
Vance said: There’s anything we can do for Americans. ”
European politicians and organizers of the Munich security conference that they refused to deal with issues such as immigration, he was shocked by populists in most quiet halls in Munich. He urged them to recognize that politicians who represent political parties should not be excluded.
Firewalls have long been around in Germany, preventing mainstream parties from engaging in the far-right alternative Deutschland due to Nazi origins. But Vance said there is no room for such a barrier.
“People dismiss voter concerns and protect nothing by shutting down the media. That’s the surest way to destroy democracy.”
He said to impose censorship, “explaining the old, entrenched benefits hidden behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and misinformation.”
Many of the halls were quick to say that Vance still refused to accept that Trump lost the US presidential election in 2020.
Vance said: High-ranking officials threatening to cancel others should ask themselves if we hold ourselves to a reasonable high standard. ”
He argued that banning politicians representing populist parties was wrong. “We don’t have to agree with everything or anything people say, but it’s mandatory for us to listen when political leaders represent important constituencies.”
After the speech, it was confirmed that JD Vance had met AFD leader Alice Weidel personally for 30 minutes. In violation of previous protocols, he had rejected offers to meet the SPD leader and current prime minister Olaf Scholz.
His attacks on mainstream European politicians have elicited a harsh response from German and EU officials. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he could not make a speech without comment. “If I understand him correctly, he compares some of the conditions of Europe with those of the authoritarian regime,” Pistorius said. “That’s not acceptable. It’s not Europe, nor is it the democracy I live in and currently campaigning for.”
Kaja Karas, head of foreign policy for the European Union, said allies should focus on greater threats, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Listen to that speech, they should choose to fight us. We don’t want to fight our friends,” Karas said at an event in Munich.
Karas later invited the EU foreign minister to meet on Sunday to discuss Ukraine’s relationship with the Trump administration. “The purpose of the meeting is to share information and get the latest inventory of US administration representatives and Ukraine at the Munich security conference,” the invitation to the meeting, which Reuters saw, said .
The speech attracted enthusiastic praise for the Russian state television, which correspondent Asya Emelianova mentioned in Rossiya 1. It was a public can, I can’t call it anything else. ”
In a statement pleasing Germany’s polarization day before the election, Vance said:
His speech came the day after a 24-year-old Afghanist was arrested in Munich for a car ramming attack that injured 36 people. Vance seized the case to strengthen his claims. “How many times do you need to suffer from these horrible set times before changing courses and leading shared civilizations in new directions?” he asked.
Instead, he insisted that “free speech, I fear, I am retreating across Britain and across Europe.” He faced Romania for cancelling a presidential election, citing a series of incidents he claimed to be evidence of this, and Sweden arrested a man for burning the Quran in public. The UK was chosen for arresting a man praying near an abortion clinic.
In an attempt to underestimate Moscow’s role in the rise of populist rights, he said it was wrong for Russia to buy social media to influence European elections, but “Your democracy will be thousands from overseas.” It wasn’t that strong in the first place if it could be destroyed by the dollar’s digital media.”
Before Vance’s speech, German president Frank Water Steinmeier accused Trump and the high-tech baron of willing to destroy democracy. He states: “It is clear that the new American administration has a very different worldview than us. It does not take into account any established rules, partnerships, or trust that has been built over time. But , I am confident that it is not in the interest of the international community for this worldview to become a dominant paradigm.”
