![\"Vice](\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=1160,height=773,quality=80,onerror=redirect,format=auto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/14\/GettyImages-2194918366-scaled.jpg\")
February 14, 2025 3:24 pm CET<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Paul McLeary<\/a>, Jan Cienski<\/a>, Suzanne Lynch<\/a> and Robbie Gramer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Live coverage from Munich: POLITICO is on the ground at the Munich Security Conference, where we\u2019re having conversations with top officials, lawmakers and experts at our POLITICO Pub. Follow our exclusive coverage here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n MUNICH \u2014 United States Vice President JD Vance launched a blistering attack on European governments on Friday, chastising them for ignoring the will of their people, overturning elections, ignoring religious freedoms and not acting to halt illegal migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a U.S.-style MAGA, red meat speech that eschewed detailed discussion of defense and security \u2014 the topic of the Munich Security Conference. Vance instead hit on some recent hot button cultural issues, from abortion laws in Britain to the recent election in Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe threat that I worry the most about vis-\u00e0-vis Europe is not Russia. It\u2019s not China, it\u2019s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within,\u201d the vice president said. \u201cThe retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was clear that this is a very different administration from the transatlantic White House of former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Washington there is a new sheriff in town, and under Donald Trump\u2019s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square agree or disagree,\u201d Vance said, adding: \u201cDismissing people, dismissing their concerns \u2026 shutting down media, shutting down elections \u2026 protects nothing. It is the most surefire way to destroy democracy \u2026 If you\u2019re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vance\u2019s comments brought the audience of policy wonks and defense experts to a standstill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His speech focused largely on culture war issues and populism, with Vance accusing European governments and what he called European Union \u201ccommissars\u201d of being more interested in stifling free speech than in providing security for their citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In one case, he slammed the U.K., highlighting the case of anti-abortion activist Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted last year of breaching a safe zone for praying near an abortion clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also lambasted Romania\u2019s top court for its November decision<\/a> to overturn the first round of that country\u2019s presidential election after far-right presidential candidate C\u0103lin Georgescu was accused of benefiting from an illegal Russian-style social media campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we\u2019re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard,\u201d Vance said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He attacked high levels of migration, touching on the same themes that animated Trump\u2019s return to power in the United States. He said he was praying for the victims of Thursday\u2019s attack <\/a>in Munich, when a migrant drove a car into a crowd, injuring 28. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our civilization in a different direction?\u201d Vance said, adding that the number of immigrants from non-EU countries who entered the bloc doubled from 2021 to 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was \u201cthe result of a series of conscious decisions made by politicians all over the continent,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking an absolutist view of free speech, Vance said: \u201cI believe deeply that there is no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The speech caused consternation in Munich, where the audience had been expecting some clarity on the U.S. administration\u2019s recent confusing comments on reaching a peace deal in Ukraine<\/a>, its views on Russia, and whether U.S. troops will be pulled out of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNuts,\u201d was the reaction of former U.S. ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder. It\u2019s \u201cnot the kind of language you would expect in the 21st century and certainly not from the U.S. vice president at Europe\u2019s most important security conference,\u201d he told POLITICO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daalder said Vance also missed an opportunity to explain the Trump team\u2019s positions on Ukraine talks with Russia. \u201cAll he said is we believe there should be a peace at some point and that\u2019s it. The question of territories and borders, the question of security guarantees, the question of sanctions and their future, the question of support for Ukraine and its future was not mentioned at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But not all found the speech so objectionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elon Musk, Trump\u2019s billionaire adviser, was ecstatic, posting on X<\/a>: \u201cMake Europe Great Again! MEGA, MEGA, MEGA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One European diplomat applauded Vance, calling it \u201ca very strong speech. Many will not like it. Many will silently agree with him but will choose not to express it. There has been double standards when it comes to how the EU institutions have approached the democratic process in different European countries.\u201d …<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Vance\u2019s speech comes at the tail of a week of confusion and frustration in Europe, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth surprised allies <\/a>by saying that Ukraine cannot return to its pre-invasion borders and ruled out Ukraine\u2019s future membership in NATO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" JD Vance attacks Europe over migration, free speech U.S. vice president stunned the audience with his broadside on the way Europe is run. February 14, 2025 3:24 pm CET By Paul McLeary, Jan Cienski, Suzanne Lynch and Robbie Gramer Live … Continue reading Culture wars<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Stunned reaction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n