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JD VANCE’S MUNICH SPEECH LAID BARE THE COLLAPSE OF THE
TRANSATLANTIC ALLIANCE
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Patrick Wintour
February 17, 2025
Guardian [[link removed]]
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_ Vance's Munich speech was a call to arms for the populist right to
be able to seize power in Europe, and a promise that the “new
sheriff in town” would help them to do so. _
JD Vance giving a speech at the Munich Security Conference, screen
grab
Since 1963, the Munich Security Conference has seen many consequential
speeches, notably Vladimir Putin announcing in 2007 that Russia would
never accept a subordinate role in the new world order.
But Friday’s speech by JD Vance
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the US vice-president, has the potential to be the most consequential
– the moment the world order against which Putin railed fell apart.
Sometimes, even in this digital age, speeches can act as clarifiers.
Yes, the 22 minutes were full of laughable hypocrisy, distorted
portraits of European democracy
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insensitivity to Europe’s trauma with fascism, but for what it said
about the chasm in values between most in Europe and the Trump
administration, it was hard to overlook.
The shock was in part because the conference traditionally tends to
talk about the polarisation of populism, as opposed to invite a
populist to speak. The organisers had expected a dissertation
on Ukraine [[link removed]], but instead
got the full populist pulpit, and therefore something more
significant.
The speech signalled that the pre-existing dispute between Europe and
the US was no longer to do with the sharing of the military burdens,
or the nature of the future security threat posed by Russia
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fundamental about society.
It was not just a collection of cheap shots in a culture war, while a
real, life-and-death military war was largely ignored. It was a call
to arms for the populist right to be able to seize power in Europe
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the “new sheriff in town” would help them to do so.
Speaking to the populist right, and defending digital freedom, Vance
said: “Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your
views, but we will defend your right to offer it in the public square
– agree or disagree.”
The greatest danger to Europe, Vance claimed, was not Russia, not
China, but the “danger from within”. An entrenched elite had
instrumentalised the judiciary, eroded freedom of speech to keep their
cartel in power, annulled elections in Romania on flimsy intelligence
and run away from voters’ valid concerns about mass migration,
leaving them locked out of political debate.
His conclusion was that Germany
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firewall, and so legitimise the populists. (He did not mention
Alternative für Deutschland by name, but met the far-right party’s
leader afterwards.) If it did not, he warned, Germany might not
survive, since no democracy would survive “telling millions of
voters that their thoughts and concerns, their hopes, their requests
for help are invalid”.
Vance portrayed a continent that had lost its way. Why was the
security conference talking about defence budgets when it was not
clear what they were actually defending? he asked. It was clear
“against what” they were defending, but not clear “for what
reason”.
And then came the crunch, and the explicit severance. “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. You
need democratic mandates to accomplish anything of value in the coming
years.”
He continued: “For years, we’ve been told that everything we fund
and support is in the name of our shared democratic values.” But he
looked at Europe today and wondered why the cold war’s winners had
abandoned the values that let them prevail against “tyrannical
forces” on the continent.
The message was implicit, but clear. Nato
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war as an expression of US determination to defend shared western
values, but if those values were no longer shared, then the moral
purpose of Nato itself fell away.
In identifying Europe’s perceived faults – multiculturalism,
“globalism”, migration, gay rights, liberal wokery – and in
excluding Russia from criticism, the speech came close to arguing that
US democracy was at best neutral on the relative values of Russia and
of the European elite.
For years, many Maga activists, such as Steve Bannon, have claimed an
affinity with Putin’s ideologue Alexander Dugin, a man Bannon has
met and praised. They both believe European elites promote a
“globalist” ideology that denies the existence of different
cultures and traditions. But it was one thing for Bannon to see these
connections, another for them to be echoed by the White House.
For the Maga movement, and for Vance, judging by his speech, the
withdrawal from Europe as it exists now is not about burden-sharing,
American isolationism, disputes about the trustworthiness of Putin, or
even tariffs, but about an ideological fissure.
Europe’s leaders at the security conference, after reeling, started
a fightback, but still seemed in denial. Olaf Scholz, the German
chancellor, reminded Vance that the vice-president had visited the
former concentration camp Dachau this week and pledged that such
unspeakable crimes against humanity would never be repeated. Germany
had a historic duty to fight the return of parties with roots in
nazism, Scholz said. A firewall was not about censoring AfD. It was
about refusing to work with them in government.
“The overwhelming majority of the people of my country stand up
resolutely to those who glorify or justify the criminal National
Socialism,” Scholz said. “The AfD is a party from the ranks of
which National Socialism and its monstrous crimes, crimes against
humanity, like the ones committed in Dachau, were trivialised as just
a ‘speck of bird shit in German history
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It was a dignified rebuttal.
Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader, was more blunt. Germany defended free
speech but not fake news, he said, and hate speech and offensive
speech remained subject to legal constraints and independent courts.
He added: “We would never kick out a press agency from the office of
our chancellor.”
But when the discussion turned to the implications for Ukraine, the
enormity was too much. The leaders reverted to familiar complaints
about the slow delivery of air systems, sclerotic European arms
production and the absence of security guarantees for Ukraine. The
full consequence for European security of Trump cutting off support
was downplayed.
But it was Volodymr Zelenskyy who really drove home the collapse of
the transatlantic alliance. He said “The US vice-president made it
clear: decades of the old relationship between Europe and America are
ending. From now on, things will be different, and Europe needs to
adjust to that.”
Discussing his recent talk with Trump, he revealed: “Not once did
Trump mention that America needs Europe at that table. That says a
lot. The old days are over – when America supported Europe just
because it always had.”
He continued: “Some in Europe may not fully understand what’s
happening in Washington right now. Does America need Europe as a
market? Yes, but as an ally, I don’t know. For the answer to be yes,
Europe needs a single voice, not a dozen different ones.
“We need confidence in our own strength so that others have no
choice but to respect Europe’s power. And without a European army,
that is impossible. Once again – Europe needs its own armed
forces.” But how many Europeans, divided by the issues Vance
highlighted, are willing to take the course that Zelenskyy urges?
_Patrick Wintour [[link removed]]
is diplomatic editor for the Guardian_
_The Guardian [[link removed]] is globally renowned
for its coverage of politics, the environment, science, social
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