Vice President J.D. Vance held talks with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), at the Munich Security Conference after crictizing organizers for not inviting members of her party.
Vance made his debut on the international stage by issuing a blistering attack on Europe for ‘criminalizing’ free speech and ignoring its own ‘core democratic values’.
He then became the most senior U.S. official to meet with immigration hardliner Weidel, with the Afd heading for their strongest election showing in years when voters heads to the polls in nine days.
Mainstream parties have already warned they won’t work with AfD, a decision Vance compared to a democratic ‘firewall’.
Weidel and AfD have already attracted the attention of the MAGA movement and Elon Musk with its skepticism of moving away from fossil fuels and criticism of COVID restrictions and financial support for Ukraine.
The party became a German political force in the 2010s when then Chancellor Angela Merkel let a large number of migrants into the country.
The meeting came after Vance lectured Europe, slammed leaders for making AfD a pariah and declined a one-on-one with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
‘Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls,’ he said in reference to the boycott by other German parties.
Vice President J.D. Vance held talks with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), at the Munich Security Conference after crictizing organizers for not inviting members of her party
‘The organizers of this very conference have banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations,’ he added.
He also poked fun at European outrage about Elon Musk’s rise to the top of the Trump administration during his blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference Friday.
He took time out from warning European leaders that they were sleeping at the wheel of democracy to defend a man sometimes called the real vice president.
‘Trust me, I say this with all humor, if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk,’ he said.
Thunberg’s teenage environmental crusade has irritated conservatives in America.
And Vance’s comparison may go some way to silencing questions about how he gets along with the world’s richest man, even it was a bit of a backhanded defense.
He rather suggested that Musk will only be around for a matter of months.
While Vance was in Europe for an A.I. summit and the Munich meeting, Musk hogged the headlines Tuesday when he held court, answering questions in the Oval Office of the White House, beside President Donald Trump.
But it was Vance’s turn in the spotlight Friday, when he used his speech to deliver a blistering attack on Europe and its leaders.
‘Europe faces many challenges, but the crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making,’ he said.
‘If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.’
If his audience of European VIPs had expected Vance to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine, outlining Donald Trump’s peace plan, they were in for a shock.
Some shifted in their seats as he attacked European politicians head on.
He accused European Union officials of ‘canceling elections and asked whether ‘we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately higher standard’.
‘There is a new sheriff in town,’ he said referring to President Donald Trump. ‘We may disagree with your views but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square.’
Vance made his debut on the international stage by issuing a blistering attack on Europe for ‘criminalizing’ free speech and ignoring its own ‘core democratic values’
Weidel and AfD have already attracted the attention of the MAGA movement and Elon Musk with its skepticism of moving away from fossil fuels and criticism of COVID restrictions and financial support for Ukraine
The hall was packed to hear Vance speak. Audience members sat on the stairs or stood three deep in the aisles, sending the temperature soaring even before Vance turned up the heat.
He cited the example of a British man, Adam Smith-Connor, who was arrested after he refused to leave a safe zone around an abortion clinic designed to protect vulnerable women.
Vance claimed it was an attack on the ‘basic liberties of religious Britons’ that ‘criminalizes prayer.’
‘British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for,’ said Vance.
‘Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son that his former girlfriend had aborted years before.’
