JD Vance Leaves Europe Aghast After Claiming Largest Threat To Continent ‘Comes From Within’

JD Vance stunned Europe with his shocking speech at the Munich Security Conference this afternoon.

The US vice-president ripped into the European establishment over its “retreat” from key values, and what he described as its restriction on free speech and content moderation.

He also accused leaders of “running in fear of your own voters”.

Vance claimed that to many Americans, Europe looks “more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet era words like misinformation and disinformation”.

At one point, he said if American democracy can survive 10 years of climate activist Greta Thunberg “scolding it” then Europe can “survive a few months” of Elon Musk.

Thunberg, now 22, started School Strike for Climate in 2018 and has often criticised world leaders, particularly Donald Trump, for inaction over the environment.

Musk is the world’s richest man, CEO of X, Tesla and SpaceX, and the head of the new informal department of government efficiency (DOGE). He has major influence over the new US administration as Trump’s new right-hand man.

Vance also told the conference that he fears the “threats from within” Europe rather than Russia and China, because of the “retreat from some of its most fundamental values”.

He claimed this includes free speech in Europe, and called on all countries to live by “democratic values”, and said there is no issue more “urgent” than mass migration.

The vice-president’s remarks were particularly eye-catching considering the Trump administration has just opened negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine war.

The US has already hinted that Vladimir Putin will be able to get pretty much everything he wants in any peace deal – including formally taking occupied Ukrainian land – three years after he invaded the beleaguered country.

The move has sparked comparisons to World War 2 appeasement amid concerns Russia will just try to seize more land in the future.

Vance said he believes the US can “come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine”.

Vance also said European countries have to play a “bigger role” in the future of the continent, but that it is becoming less clear what Europe is actually defending itself against.

German defence minister Boris Pistorius later slammed Vance for his words, telling the conference it was wrong to describe Europe as “authoritarians” and that the intervention was “not acceptable”.

Pistorius said: “Democracy does not mean a vociferous minority would automatically be right. They cannot decide what truth is, and democracy must be able to defend itself against extremists who try to destroy it.”

He continued: “I would like to explicitly contradict and oppose the impression that vice president Vance suggested here, that our democracies oppress and silence minorities.

“We not only know against whom we defend our countries, but what we defend them for – for democracy, for freedom of opinion, for the rule of law, and the dignity of each and everyone.”

The Liberal Democrat’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Calum Miller, said: “Britain will not take lectures about political freedoms from the acolyte of a President who tried to undermine American democracy and now praises Putin. 

“The British people will see straight through this hypocrisy.”

There was also plenty of fury on social media…