The American vice president, JD Vance, has caused the indignation of the German political class by enduring the electoral campaign criticizing the position of democratic parties in the face of the formation of alternative ultra -right for Germany (AFD). A little over a week of elections, at the Munich Security Conference that in a democracy “There is no room for firewalls”, the term with which in Germany the sanitary cordon that isolates the extreme right is known. The German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, called the words of the vice president of “unacceptable.”
Vance left the auditorium stunned by highlighting European leaders telling them that the greatest threat to their security is neither Russia nor China, but what he called “the internal enemy.” In his opinion, this consists of “the setback of some of its fundamental values, values shared with the US.” “I’m afraid that freedom of expression is in recoil in Europe,” he said, and criticized the marginalization of the parties considered extremists. Without specifically naming AFD, he added that excluding those voters already a sign that politicians are “afraid of their voters” and that this constitutes “a way of destroying a democracy.”
Germany’s response came immediately, as soon as the German Minister of Defense, the Social Democrat Pistorius came. “I had a prepared speech. He went security in Europe. But I can’t start as planned. I can’t ignore what I’ve heard. This democracy has been questioned by the US vice president […]that compares what happens in Europe with things that occur in authoritarian regimes. This is not acceptable [En este momento la audiencia rompió en aplausos]. Democracy does not mean that a noisy minority can decide what the truth is. Democracy must be able to defend against extremists, ”he said, visibly counter.
The Munich Security Conference is an annual forum that brings together politicians, diplomats and high -level analysts to share security and defense issues. Vance’s intervention had attached great expectation, because it was expected that it would announce the plans of the US administration to end war in Ukraine and for the defense of Europe against the growing Russian threat. Instead, Donald Trump’s number two launched a 18 -minute speech attacking the European allies that the German media have described as “cultural war”, “little diplomat” and “interference” in the electoral process.
The AFD leader and the Foreign Ministry candidate, Alice Weidel, described as “excellent” Vance’s speech in her X account just a quarter of an hour after he finished. It included a video of the intervention with German subtitles, which could indicate that Vance personnel had previously provided them with speech. The German media have revealed that Vance met with Weidel on the banks of the conference, as well as with the democratic leader and candidate of the CDU, Friedrich Merz. There was no meeting, on the other hand, with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Merz, who according to the surveys will be the next chancellor ,.
Scholz has also criticized Vance’s words and, specifically, that he urges alliances with an extreme right formation. In an interview with the Deutschlandfunk radio that will be broadcast on Sunday, the Foreign Minister says that Germany has a retaining wall against extreme right parties for good reasons. In the talk, he assures, according to the advance published by the station, which is a consensus of democratic parties in the light of experience with National Socialism and “must continue to be.”
The federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was also overwhelming in his criticism of Vance, which before landing in Munich had given an interview with The Wall Street Journal, advanceing some of the ideas of his controversial speech in Germany. Steinmeier denounced that the Trump administration does not respect the established rules and said it was “very worried” because a small business elite has the power to redefine the rules of liberal democracy. “The new US administration has a different worldview than ours. A vision that does not take into account the established norms, the association and the confidence created, ”he said in his speech to open the appointment, unusual words for a consensus and partisan figure that is usually much more moderate in his speeches.
In the morning, a government spokesman had assured at a press conference, in response to a question about the interview, which Vance should not end up in the German elections. “I do not think it is correct that foreigners, including those of foreign friends, interfere so intensely in an electoral campaign in full electoral period,” he said. The American vice president had announced in the publication that would urge German politicians to work with all parties, including AFD.
The weekly The mirror He opened his digital edition on Friday afternoon with an analysis of what happened at the Munich Security Conference titling “Now Europeans should have understood once and for all that they are alone.” “Little diplomatic statements,” the newspaper titled for its part Süddeutsche Zeitung. “An adjustment of unprecedented accounts with Europe,” said Public Television Ard.
Some analysts also point out that Vance referred to, with a rhetoric that reminds of which he uses alternative for Germany (AFD). The vice president said that by excluding certain parties, in obvious reference to AFD, the discontent of his voters is repressed with “mass immigration” that, he said, is the most urgent crisis that Europe faces.
