US Vice-President JD Vance speaks at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany February 14, 2025. [Photo/Agencies]
European leaders have reacted angrily to US Vice-President JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference where he accused European governments of overturning elections, ignoring the will of their people and doing nothing to halt illegal migration.
"The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia. It's not China, it's not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within," Vance said in a speech on Friday.
"The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.
"If you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you."
Citing specific cases, Vance criticized official actions from the European Commission and Sweden to Germany and Romania, where a top court overturned the first round of the country's presidential election in November.
"When we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard," Vance added.
He also warned Germany, saying "there is no room for firewalls," referring to Germany's mainstream political parties' stance of rejecting cooperation with the Alternative for Germany (AfD), labeled in EU as a far-right party.
The German federal election will be held on Feb 23, and AfD is expected to finish in second place, ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party, according to a recent YouGov poll.
Scholz immediately rejected Vance's call to remove the "firewalls" against AfD, saying the Trump administration's backing of the AfD "is not proper, especially not among friends and allies, and we firmly reject that."
"We will decide for ourselves what happens to our democracy," Scholz said on Saturday.
Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and most likely the next chancellor, also rebuffed Vance.
"We respect the presidential elections and the congressional elections in the US. And we expect the US to do the same here," he told the Munich meeting.
Merz mocked Trump's White House for banning AP reporters from attending press events after AP refused to use "Gulf of America" to replace Gulf of Mexico. Merz said the German government "would never kick a news agency out of the press room of our chancellery."
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Vance's speech "is not acceptable."
Vance also infuriated German leaders by meeting with AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel on Friday, while he did not meet Scholz in Munich.
Asked about Vance's speech, Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that it was a "very good speech, actually very brilliant."
Carl Bildt, a former Swedish prime minister, said Vance's speech was "significantly worse than expected" and Scholz delivered "a fairly robust rebuttal."
"If the intention of the speech was to alienate Europe, I think it could be described as successful. Otherwise – certainly not," Bildt said of Vance's speech.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Vance was trying to pick a fight with the EU.
"Listening to that speech, they tried to pick a fight with us but we don't want to pick a fight with our friends," she said at the Munich conference.
Wang Yiwei, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of International Relations, attended the Munich conference and told China Daily that Vance's speech has confused Europeans.
"Some Europeans are disappointed with the US. Some still harbor delusions about the US, even hoping to incite tensions between China and the US to benefit the EU," Wang said, clearly referring to Kallas, who took several swipes at China when people expected her to comment on US government actions.
Rob Roos, a former MEP and former vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, applauded Vance's speech.
"EU bureaucrats should be required to listen to this twice a day – once before work, once before bed," he said on X.
"A masterclass in democracy. A lesson in common sense," he said.
