US Vice President J.D. Vance has slammed European leaders for “criminalising” free speech, opening the immigration floodgates and brutally clamping down on dissent in his landmark address to the Munich Security Conference. The Mail has more.
Vice President J.D. Vance took his culture war to Europe on Friday, warning that its greatest threat came not from China or Russia but from within as he delivered a blistering attack on what he said was the continent’s retreat from its traditional values.
Vance said free speech and democratic institutions were being eroded in an address to the Munich Security Conference.
He accused European politicians of forcing people to shut down social media accounts and urged leaders to do more to stem illegal immigration.
Vance reserved particular scorn for America’s closest ally, and the case of a British man arrested after praying near an abortion clinic.
“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 “cancelling 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.”
The hall was packed to hear Vance speak. Audience members sat on the stairs or stood three deep in the aisles, sending temperatures 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 “criminalises 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.”
He accused European leaders of echoing communist language by acting against “disinformation” and “misinformation”.
And he hammered Trump’s longstanding demand that European nations spend more on their own defence.
“While the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way,” he said.
“The biggest threat to Europe isn’t external — it’s internal. A retreat from its own fundamental values, values shared with the US.”
He delivered his speech at a moment of world peril, as the established world order is in danger of crumbling under Putin’s assault on Ukraine.
Worth reading in full.
The Telegraph notes that Vance criticised Europe over mass migration and a lack of defence spending, condemning the UK for betraying Brexit voters by opening “the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants”.
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