Vance Accuses European Allies of Repression

"MUNICH -- Vice President JD Vance blasted European allies Friday, accusing them of repressing free speech and ignoring the will of voters on issues such as mass migration.

Vance said growing censorship, isolation of populist parties and the erosion of democracy posed a greater threat to Europe than Russia or China.

"Europe faces many challenges, but the crisis this continent faces right now -- the crisis you face right now -- is one of your own making," he said at the Munich Security Conference. Vance said conservatives have been investigated, arrested, prosecuted or fined for protesting abortion and expressing their views on social media.

He called for German politicians to abandon the so-called firewall, an agreement among mainstream parties not to govern or collaborate with the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, a far-right party that some see as extremist.

Germany's minister of defense, Boris Pistorius -- who occasionally interrupted Vance with cries of "No!" -- called the speech unacceptable. Democracy doesn't mean a loud minority should determine truth, he said in a speech after Vance.

"I am grateful and proud to live in a Europe that defends our democracy and our way of life, both against internal and against external enemies," Pistorius said to loud applause.

Vance appeared to threaten that America wouldn't support allies who, in his view, are stifling democracy.

"If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing I can do for you," he said.

Vance cited a suspected terrorist attack by an Afghan immigrant in Munich a day before his speech, when a car slammed into a crowd.

"No voter in Europe went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of economic migrants," he said.

He chastised conference organizers for what he said was banning the far-left and far-right parties of Germany from attending.

Leaders are increasingly repressing dissenting views under the guise of fighting disinformation, as the Soviet Communists once did, he said.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who met with Vance, said the Trump administration's worldview "must not become the dominant paradigm."

"The absence of rules must not become the guiding principle of a new world order," he said, arguing that Russia and China would benefit most.

Some U.S. Democrats also panned Vance's address. "I was embarrassed for America," said Sen. Andy Kim (D, N.J.), a member of the congressional delegation to the conference.

Not all conference participants disagreed with Vance. Many applauded his speech, while some of the leaders in the audience later said he was right on certain points.

In his concluding remarks, Vance ridiculed protests in Germany against Elon Musk's campaigning for the AfD in the Feb. 23 elections.

"German democracy will survive Elon Musk," Vance said, but won't survive "telling tens of millions of your own voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief, and their votes are invalid and unworthy of consideration."

Steinmeier said in response, "It causes me great concern to see how a small elite group of businesspeople has both the means and the desire to rewrite a significant part of the liberal democracy playbook."" [1]

New found ability of EU elites to quench democracy leads to closed group thinking removed from reality, loss of money, and political capital. Chaos is growing in the EU.

1. World News: Vance Accuses European Allies of Repression. Pancevski, Bojan; Ward, Alexander; Norman, Laurence.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 15 Feb 2025: A7.