Vice President J.D. Vance took off the gloves in Europe. Many European leaders are shocked. Good!
Vance Shocks Europe
On Friday, Vance lectured European leaders on freedom of speech, AfD, Elon Musk, and even Gretta Thunberg.
It was a speech Europe needed to hear and masterfully delivered. The reactions were nearly as amusing as his speech.
CNN comments Vance turns on European allies in blistering speech that downplayed threats from Russia and China
US Vice President JD Vance vented at European leaders Friday, telling them that the biggest threat to their security was “from within,” rather than China and Russia.
Vance used his first major speech as vice president to lambast European politicians, claiming they are suppressing free speech, losing control of immigration and refusing to work with hard-right parties in government.
The audience at the Munich Security Conference was expecting to hear about the Trump administration’s plans to end the war in Ukraine, but instead were treated to a bombastic rejection of liberal orthodoxies that have prevailed in Western Europe since the Second World War, in a speech that downplayed the threats to the continent posed by Russia and China.
“The threat that I worry most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” Vance told a stone-faced audience.
The vice president — who met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the conference — said “shutting down” unorthodox viewpoints is the “most surefire way to destroy democracy,” and called on European leaders – who have been elected by their respective peoples – to “embrace what your people tell you.”
“If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk,” he said.
While many had expected the vice president to echo Hegseth’s calls for European countries to hike their defense spending as a precondition for continued American support, Vance’s message was blunter: “If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.”
“When we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we need to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard,” Vance said.
The vice president’s remarks in Munich come just over a week before the German national elections, in which the country is widely expected to swing right after a campaign season where immigration ranked among the key issues.
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been courting both the Trump administration and Elon Musk, is polling at roughly 21% ahead of the February 23 election, which would make the party the second largest political force in Germany and the first far-right party to hold such a position since the Second World War.
Vance on Friday criticized the “firewall” that caused other major parties within Germany to shun the AfD.
“What no democracy – American, German, or European – will survive, is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief, are invalid and unworthy of even being considered,” Vance said. “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls.”
After his remarks, Vance met with AfD leader Alice Weidel for about 30 minutes, where the two discussed the war in Ukraine and German domestic politics, a spokesperson for Weidel’s office said. The vice president also met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Friedrich Merz, who CNN reported earlier this month is the frontrunner to become next chancellor.
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius later called Vance’s criticism of European leaders “unacceptable.”
“I strongly oppose the impression that Vice President Vance has created that minorities are being suppressed or silenced in our democracy,” Pistorius said.
The vice president said he “understands” the argument that Romania canceled its election – which has been rescheduled for May – because “Russian disinformation had infected” the electoral process, but said European leaders needed to get some “perspective.”
“If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with,” he said.
Vance said that Europe’s assaults on free speech extended into the digital realm, claiming that leaders had “threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation,” citing the example of the Covid-19 lab leak theory.
“It looks more and more like old entrenched interest, hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion,” he added.
Asked to respond to Vance’s remarks later Friday, Trump said he believed they were “brilliant” and “well received.”
“And I think it’s true, in Europe, they’re losing their wonderful right of freedom of speech,” Trump said. He later added Europe “has to be careful” and said the continent “has a big immigration problem.”
Brilliant and Well Received
NRP notes German chancellor slams Vance’s call for Europe to be inclusive of far-right parties
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply rebuked U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Saturday, a day after Vance gave a speech saying European leaders should not shun far-right political parties.
Scholz emphasized that a commitment to “never again” also applies to political parties like Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, also known as the AfD, which has downplayed the horrors of the Nazi regime.
He went on to say Germany will not accept outsiders intervening in the country’s elections, adding: “That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies.”
Last year, the group became the first far-right party since the Nazis during the World War II era to receive the most votes in a state election. But it has yet to be part of a federal governing coalition as a result of a pact — also known as a “firewall” — by other parties to refuse to work with the AfD.
On Friday, Vance did not mention the AfD directly but said German parties should drop the “firewall” — much to the surprise and concern of European leaders in the room.
“Europeans, the people, have a voice,” Vance said in the speech. “You can embrace what your people tell you, even when it’s surprising, even when you don’t agree.”
Vance also met with AfD leader Alice Weidel on Friday. He separately met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier; Friedrich Merz, the head of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party; as well as Scholz this past week.
Here’s another amusing response …
Vance Unites Europe
The Boroiwitz Reports says Europe United in Belief That JD Vance is a Prick
Crediting the vice president with ushering in a new era of European solidarity, attendees at the Munich Security Conference left Friday’s session united in the belief that JD Vance is a prick.
“I came to Munich full of skepticism that we as a group of nations could find common ground on anything,” Danish delegate Hartvig Dorkelson said. “That all changed the moment that asshat Vance opened his mouth.”
Vance did his job, and judging from the reactions, it was a job well done.
Vance’s Speech
Please play the Video. Vance’s speech was excellent, albeit with almost no applause.
German Elections Feb 23 – Only One Coalition Makes Sense (But No One Wants It)
Friday morning, I commented German Elections Feb 23 – Only One Coalition Makes Sense (But No One Wants It)
All of the other parties have ruled out working with AfD. But no other coalition makes any sense. Disaster looms.
German Political Polls
If parties get 5 percent of the vote they are in. Otherwise the votes are reapportioned. with minor exceptions.
Compared to the coalition math I presented in German Elections Feb 23 – Only One Coalition Makes Sense (But No One Wants It), only differs by a couple percentage points for Die Like (far Left) and BSW (Far Left).
However, those percentage points may be sufficient for a Grand Coalition to have a majority.
The worst possible outcome for SPD, Union (CDU/CSU), and the Greens is the top line in the above image. See the math below.
Coalition Math
- SPD+Union+Greens+AfD+Linke+BSW = 90 Percent
- Union (CDU/CSU) would get ~30 percent of the remaining ~10 percent = 3 Percent – Total 33 Percent
- SPD would get ~15 percent of the remaining ~10 percent = 1 or 2 percent, Total 17 Percent
- AfD would get ~21 percent of the remaining ~10 percent = 2 percent, Total 23 Percent
- Greens would get ~13 percent of the remaining ~10 percent = 1 percent, Total 14 Percent
Elections are by delegates, not quite exactly as I presented, but similar.
It is very possible that a Grand Coalition CDU/CSU + SPD would not have a majority if Die Linke and BSW meet the 5 percent threshold.
And if FDP also hangs on, it is even more likely that no two-way majority other than CDU/CSU plus AfD is possible.
How Did Vance Change the Math?
We do not know the answer to that.
But if he boosted AfD or any of the other minor parties at the expense of CDU/CSU Germany may be ungovernable.
What to Expect?
Since no coalition makes any sense but the one CDU/CSU rejects, expect months of bickering followed by the formation of a dysfunctional and unstable coalition.
The only other possibility is CDU leader Friedrich Merz breaks his pledge and forms a coalition with AfD.
What About Trump?
Germany can expect a nightmare. This one is 100 percent.
Trump wants defense spending at 5 percent of GDP when Germany does not even spend 2 percent.
Germany has one of the worst infrastructures in the EU (internet, fiber lines, phones, and trains). And as discussed above, Germany is deindustrializing having over-relied on diesel and analog phones while avoiding AI and EVs.
Finally, Germany has a trade surplus with the US of $85 billion that Trump vows to flatten with tariffs.
Germany is in piss poor economic and piss poor political shape.
A crisis looms.
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