LONDON: US vice-president JD Vance has slammed European leaders for not defending democracy and free speech in their own countries and said that the US is more worried about that in Europe than any external threat from Russia or China.
Speaking at the Munich security conference on Friday, Vance accused European leaders of ignoring the concerns of their own people, which he said was a “surefire way to destroy democracy”. “In Britain and across Europe free speech I fear is in retreat,” he said.
While the Trump administration wants Europe to spend much more on its own defence, the threat he worries about the most is the “retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with USA”.
He lambasted a former European commissioner who had on TV expressed delight that the Romanian govt had annulled its Dec presidential elections and warned the same could happen in Germany.
This, he said, was shocking to American ears. “For years, we have been told that everything we fund and support [in Europe] is in the name of our shared democratic values.”
He said he now looks at Europe today and wonders what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners.
He cited the UK where a Christian army veteran was recently convicted for praying silently near an abortion clinic, and Sweden where a Christian activist was convicted for participating in Quran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder.
“I have heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from but what is less clear to me is what exactly are you defending yourselves for. If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,” he said, slamming the conference organisers for not allowing lawmakers representing far left and right parties to participate.
“It looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation who simply don’t like the idea someone might express a different opinion, vote a different way or win an election,” Vance said.
He said Biden had bullied social media companies to censor “so-called misinformation” such as that Covid leaked from Wuhan lab, even though it turned out to be the obvious truth”.
He said the Trump admin will do the opposite. “There is a new sheriff in town,” he said, adding Elon Musk’s views were not “election interference”. “If American democracy can survive being scolded by Greta Thunberg, then Europe can survive Elon Musk.”
He also attacked political leaders in Europe for allowing mass migration which, he said, was a “series of conscious decisions made by politicians”. Referring to the attack in Munich earlier this week, he said: “An asylum-seeker already known to police rams a car into a crowd and shatters a community. How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course? No voter in Europe went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.” More people in Europe are voting for leaders that promise to end this, he said.
