German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a strong rebuke for JD Vance on Saturday after Vance appeared to indicate his support for a sidelined far-right political party in the country.Scholz’s comments came after a speech that the vice president gave in Germany the day before at the Munich Security Conference.In the speech before an assembled audience of representatives from governments across the globe, Vance lambasted European leaders, claiming that they are not taking issues of immigration seriously enough within the continent. The vice president also said that the refusal of European governments to work with far-right political parties is harming the ability of those countries to remove foreigners who are in their respective countries illegally, which Vance called the biggest threat facing Europe.“The threat that I worry most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it’s not any other external actor,” Vance said to the audience at the conference. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.”Vance cited an attack the day before from a 24-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker who drove into a crowd in Munich and injured at least 30 people as an example of the “horrors wrought by” European immigration policies.In Germany and elsewhere, many governing parties have ruled out working with political parties that affiliate themselves with hardline immigration policies and rhetoric. This includes Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party, which has ruled out working with the Alternative for Germany party, a party whose members have been accused by some within Germany of echoing Nazi rhetoric, while downplaying and trivializing Nazi atrocities in World War II.For his part, Vance said that refusing to work with far-right political parties amounts to a suppression of free speech and that “shutting down” unorthodox viewpoints is the “most surefire way to destroy democracy.”On Saturday, Scholz responded to Vance’s comments at the security conference in a speech, accusing the vice president of interfering in the country’s election which is scheduled next week for Feb. 23.“We will not accept outsiders intervening in our democracy, in our elections, in the democratic formation of opinion in favor of this party,” Scholz said. “That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies. Where our democracy goes from here is for us to decide.”While at the conference, Vance also met with Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, where the two reportedly discussed German domestic politics, as well as the war in Ukraine. Vance also met with other German political officials, including both the country’s president and the leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party, Germany’s largest political opposition party.“A commitment to ‘never again’ cannot be reconciled with support for the AfD,” Scholz told audiences in Munich.In Vance’s home of Cincinnati, local headlines have also been dominated by talk of Nazis throughout the past week, after a neo-Nazi group displayed swastikas over an overpass in Evendale.The demonstration came as hate crimes are at an all-time recent high within the United States, and a series of other high-profile white supremacist events have made headlines in the Greater Cincinnati region over the past few months.Still, Cincinnatians have been fiercely pushing back against the display of hate all week, with regular gatherings being held on the overpass that those gathered hope instead emphasizes the community’s commitment to love, tolerance and multiculturalism.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a strong rebuke for JD Vance on Saturday after Vance appeared to indicate his support for a sidelined far-right political party in the country.
Scholz’s comments came after a speech that the vice president gave in Germany the day before at the Munich Security Conference.
In the speech before an assembled audience of representatives from governments across the globe, Vance lambasted European leaders, claiming that they are not taking issues of immigration seriously enough within the continent. The vice president also said that the refusal of European governments to work with far-right political parties is harming the ability of those countries to remove foreigners who are in their respective countries illegally, which Vance called the biggest threat facing Europe.
“The threat that I worry most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it’s not any other external actor,” Vance said to the audience at the conference. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.”
Vance cited an attack the day before from a 24-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker who drove into a crowd in Munich and injured at least 30 people as an example of the “horrors wrought by” European immigration policies.
In Germany and elsewhere, many governing parties have ruled out working with political parties that affiliate themselves with hardline immigration policies and rhetoric. This includes Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party, which has ruled out working with the Alternative for Germany party, a party whose members have been accused by some within Germany of echoing Nazi rhetoric, while downplaying and trivializing Nazi atrocities in World War II.
For his part, Vance said that refusing to work with far-right political parties amounts to a suppression of free speech and that “shutting down” unorthodox viewpoints is the “most surefire way to destroy democracy.”
On Saturday, Scholz responded to Vance’s comments at the security conference in a speech, accusing the vice president of interfering in the country’s election which is scheduled next week for Feb. 23.
“We will not accept outsiders intervening in our democracy, in our elections, in the democratic formation of opinion in favor of this party,” Scholz said. “That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies. Where our democracy goes from here is for us to decide.”
While at the conference, Vance also met with Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, where the two reportedly discussed German domestic politics, as well as the war in Ukraine. Vance also met with other German political officials, including both the country’s president and the leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party, Germany’s largest political opposition party.
“A commitment to ‘never again’ cannot be reconciled with support for the AfD,” Scholz told audiences in Munich.
In Vance’s home of Cincinnati, local headlines have also been dominated by talk of Nazis throughout the past week, after a neo-Nazi group displayed swastikas over an overpass in Evendale.
The demonstration came as hate crimes are at an all-time recent high within the United States, and a series of other high-profile white supremacist events have made headlines in the Greater Cincinnati region over the past few months.
Still, Cincinnatians have been fiercely pushing back against the display of hate all week, with regular gatherings being held on the overpass that those gathered hope instead emphasizes the community’s commitment to love, tolerance and multiculturalism.