Even before I had heard JD Vance’s speech, I knew it must be something special simply from the horrified reactions of the EU elites and their media allies.
We publish the US Vice President’s speech to the Munich security conference in full on europeanconservative.com, because we recognise that it marks a dividing line in Western politics. And because we agree with pretty much every word of it.
Since the moment he stopped speaking on Friday, Vance has been loudly accused of “attacking Europe”. No, he didn’t. He gave a devastating critique of the EU and UK leaders who have themselves betrayed the foundations of European democracy and Western civilisation. They are the ones who are attacking what Europe should stand for.
As he said, the most worrying threat to Europe now “is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
Vance’s extraordinary speech was aimed against Europe’s ‘enemy within’— the ruling elites who do not believe in their own nations, peoples or history. Far from being “anti-European”, he came down on the side of the millions of people across Europe who are revolting against the bankrupt old political establishment.
Vance outlined a hit list of the key issues on which Europe’s leaders are betraying Europeans—much the same issues you will find at the top of our agenda.
He slammed official Europe for retreating on free speech and imposing censorship by branding dissident views as “so-called misinformation”. He attacked the EU and European governments for an open borders policy which has exposed their people to the sort of terrorist attack that struck Munich last week. “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the flood gates to millions of unvetted immigrants”. But, he observed to the delight of this veteran Brexiteer, “In England, they voted for Brexit. … And more and more, all over Europe, they’re voting for political leaders who promise to put an end to out-of-control migration.”
He expressed near-disbelief at the attacks on democracy which mean EU officials can boast of cancelling an election result in Romania, while German politicians demand a ban on the second-most popular party before their general election.
As Vance summed all of this up:
Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way, or, even worse, win an election.
Mr Vice President, it looks a lot like that to many of us on this side of the Atlantic, too!
What brings these issues together is the EU elites’ fundamental fear and loathing of the demos—the people. As Vance said, “what no democracy, American, German or European, will survive, is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered. … To believe in democracy is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and has a voice”.
Five hundred years after NiccolòMachiavelli wrote that “The multitude is wiser and more constant than a prince,” it somehow sounds revolutionary once more to hear a Western leader praise the wisdom of the masses. And how startling to hear that in Europe, at a time when the anti-democratic EU elites prefer to put their faith, not in princes, but in equally unelected judges, commissioners and experts.
Since Munich was a security conference, Vance brought the issue back to the question of defence. “But what has seemed a little bit less clear to me—and certainly I think to many of the citizens of Europe—is what exactly it is that you’re defending yourselves for.” In other words—what is it that Europe’s leaders want to fight for? The answer to that question could decide the future of NATO and much more.
“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,” said Vance. “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. “
Vice President Vance has gone back to face the “many challenges” his own country faces, of course, But in hurling those political grenades at the crumbling walls of fortress Europe, he exploded some history-defining questions that we cannot allow to be swept back under the plush carpets of Brussels.
At the time of the European elections last year, I wrote a Democracy Watch Column entitled (with reference to U.S. author John Dos Passos), “All Right, We Are Two Europes”. It highlighted the divide between official Europe, where the elites were clinging to power, and the real Europe where millions of ordinary are in revolt against their policies and rule.
All right, now, maybe even more: we are two Wests. The divide is not America versus Europe, nor just Vance versus Von der Leyen. It is the people versus the elites, the oligarchs versus the demos, the cancel culture warriors versus those who believe free speech is the lifeblood of our civilisation.
We know where we stand. Whose side are you on?