The defense of the vice-president JD Vance of a far-right political party in Germany was the last discordant example of his desire to adopt a provocative political problem and showed how the hard immigration policy has become the Thread that closely knit a world patchwork of populist. Movements.
Friday, the push of Mr. Vance’s speech was a call to European leaders to expand their tolerance for alternative points of view. But his address from the interior of a Bavarian hotel was certain to resonate at home among the conservative and libertarian movements which have long seized battles of freedom of expression in Europe to warn of the dangers that could be looming for anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -militants -Immigration and anti-abortion in the United States.
Mr. Vance did not mention the far -right party, alternative to Germany, by name, but the context was clear because he criticized the decision to prohibit certain political parties from the Munich Security Conference a Just over a week before the German national election.
Although the elements of the party, also known by its German initials, AFD, were classified as extremists by German intelligence, it seems to be on the right track For its highest performance to date during a parliamentary election among the anger against immigration and the rise in prices.
Later in his speech, while fustigatory leaders in Europe and Germany specifically for having rejected the opinions of certain voters, Mr. Vance, said: “There is no room for firewalls.” It was a direct reference to the way in which German party leaders were familiarly referred to the construction of a “firewall” around AFD in order to blur the Party passage in the dominant current.
Vance also met the party leader Alice Weidel, during her visit to Germany, said a spokesperson.
Mr. Vance had offered a tacit support to the party in December when he plunged into the reaction of social media to a commentary by Elon Musk, who poster“Only AFD can save Germany.” In his own jobMr. Vance used His lively online personality To make fun of the criticism that Mr. Musk promoted a dangerous group.
“It is so dangerous for people to control their borders,” he wrote. “So, so dangerous. The dangerous level is outside the graphics. »»
Friday, the embrace of Mr. Vance of the far-right party was quickly reprimanded by the anti-division league, which declared in a statement that it was “deeply worrying” that Mr. Vance seemed openly welcomed a group with “An extremist program and a story that includes anti-Semitic, anti-muslim, anti-democratic and xenophobic rhetoric.”
Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden and now co -president of the European Council for Foreign Relations, described Mr. Vance’s speech as a disappointment.
“At best, it was completely out of words for European or global security problems,” said Bildt poster on social networks. “At worst, it was a blatant interference in the electoral campaign in favor of far -right AFD.”
THE fighting Vance brought to the international scene in Munich was familiar to conservative activists and other United States. His first days as a vice-presidential candidate were consumed by his criticism of “childless cat ladies”. He made the headlines for weeks by promoting the baseless affirmations that Haitian migrants ate pets from their neighbors.
Mr. Vance also spent a large part of the campaign in 2024 to launch conservatives – and Mr. Trump in particular – as victims of censorship. He cited censorship as his reason to refuse to recognize the defeat of Mr. Trump’s elections in 2020, and blame Censorship of the Conservatives of the Liberals after the assassination attempts to Mr. Trump.
In Munich, Mr. Vance took over this theme, saying that the greatest threat of security for Europe was not Russia or China, but their own suppression of freedom of expression by exhorting the leaders to kiss the climb of anti-establishment policy.
“There is nothing more urgent than mass migration,” said Vance in Munich. He noted that around one in five people living in Germany had moved to the country elsewhere and that the American population also has a significant share of immigrants.
Peter B. Doran, a senior auxiliary member of the Non-Partisan Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said that Mr. Vance “planted his flag” in Europe on issues that “had a good political sense for him in the United States”.
“President Trump was elected in the promise that he would actively approach the immigration crisis, and many Europeans have remorse of the buyer on open immigration policies that they have had for many years,” said Mr. Doran. “Vance brings this gospel to Europeans.”