{"id":239273,"date":"2025-02-15T00:24:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T00:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/15\/vance-shocks-europe-with-support-for-far-right-in-message-familiar-to-u-s\/"},"modified":"2025-02-15T00:24:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T00:24:05","slug":"vance-shocks-europe-with-support-for-far-right-in-message-familiar-to-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/15\/vance-shocks-europe-with-support-for-far-right-in-message-familiar-to-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Vance Shocks Europe With Support for Far Right, in Message Familiar to U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/14\/multimedia\/14dc-vance1-tgbj\/14dc-vance1-tgbj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Vance Shocks Europe With Support for Far Right, in Message Familiar to U.S.\" title=\"Vance Shocks Europe With Support for Far Right, in Message Familiar to U.S.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Vice President JD Vance\u2019s defense of a divisive far-right political party in Germany was the latest jarring example of his willingness to embrace a provocative political issue and showed how hard-line immigration policy has emerged as the thread tightly knitting together a global patchwork of populist movements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The thrust of Mr. Vance\u2019s speech on Friday in Munich was a call for European leaders to broaden their tolerance for alternative viewpoints. But his address from inside a Bavarian hotel was certain to resonate back home among conservative and libertarian movements that have long seized on free speech battles in Europe to warn of dangers that could be looming for anti-immigration and anti-abortion activists in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vance did not mention the far-right party, Alternative for Germany, by name, but the context was clear as he criticized a decision to bar certain political parties from the Munich Security Conference just over a week before Germany\u2019s national election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although elements of the party, also known by its German initials, AfD, have been classified as extremist by German intelligence, it <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/germany-far-right-afd-election-migration-weidel-53ed34f57556ad394c53868726d47194\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">appears to be on track<\/a> for its strongest showing yet in a parliamentary election amid anger over immigration and rising prices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Later in his speech, while castigating leaders in Europe broadly and Germany specifically for dismissing the opinions of some voters, Mr. Vance said, \u201cThere is no room for firewalls.\u201d That was a direct reference to how German party leaders have colloquially referred to building a \u201cfirewall\u201d around the AfD with the aim of blunting the party\u2019s move into the mainstream.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vance also met with the party\u2019s leader, Alice Weidel, during his visit to Germany, a spokesman for Mr. Vance said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vance had offered tacit support for the party in December when he waded into the social media backlash to a comment from Elon Musk, who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1869986946031988780\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">posted<\/a>, \u201cOnly the AfD can save Germany.\u201d In his own <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JDVance\/status\/1870448846528205242?lang=en\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">post<\/a>, Mr. Vance used <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/19\/us\/politics\/jd-vance-trump-conservatism.html\" title=\"\">his sharp-tongued online persona<\/a> to mock criticism that Mr. Musk was promoting a dangerous group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s so dangerous for people to control their borders,\u201d he wrote. \u201cSo, so dangerous. The dangerous level is off the charts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Friday, Mr. Vance\u2019s embrace of the far-right party was quickly rebuked by the Anti-Defamation League, which said in a statement that it was \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d that Mr. Vance appeared to openly welcome a group with \u201can extremist agenda and a history that includes antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-democratic and xenophobic rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden and now a co-chairman of the European Council of Foreign Relations, described Mr. Vance\u2019s speech as a disappointment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAt best it was totally irrelevant to European or global security concerns,\u201d Mr. Bildt <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/carlbildt\/status\/1890411829282701533\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">posted<\/a> on social media. \u201cAt worst it was blatant interference in the election campaign in favor of far-right AfD.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/31\/us\/politics\/jd-vance-trump-vp.html\" title=\"\">combativeness<\/a> Mr. Vance brought to the international stage in Munich was familiar to conservative activists and others in the United States. His first days as a vice-presidential candidate were consumed by his criticism of \u201cchildless cat ladies.\u201d He drew headlines for weeks by promoting baseless claims that Haitian migrants were eating their neighbors\u2019 pets. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vance also spent much of the 2024 campaign casting conservatives \u2014 and Mr. Trump in particular \u2014 as victims of censorship. He <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/11\/us\/politics\/vance-trump-2020-election-results.html\" title=\"\">cited censorship<\/a> as his reason for refusing to acknowledge Mr. Trump\u2019s election defeat in 2020, and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JDVance\/status\/1835823158957391923\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">blamed<\/a> censorship of conservatives from liberals for the assassination attempts on Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Munich, Mr. Vance picked up on that theme, saying the biggest security threat to Europe was not Russia or China, but their own suppression of free speech as he urged leaders to embrace the rise of anti-establishment politics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is nothing more urgent than mass migration,\u201d Mr. Vance said in Munich. He noted that roughly one in five people living in Germany moved to the country from elsewhere, and that the United States\u2019 population also has a significant share of immigrants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Peter B. Doran, an adjunct senior fellow at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that Mr. Vance was \u201cplanting his flag\u201d in Europe on issues that \u201cmake good political sense for him back in the States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPresident Trump was elected on the promise that he would actively address the immigration crisis, and many Europeans are having buyer\u2019s remorse over the open immigration policies they have had for many years,\u201d Mr. Doran said. \u201cVance is bringing that gospel to the Europeans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/14\/us\/politics\/vance-far-right-germany-munich-afd.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vice President JD Vance\u2019s defense of a divisive far-right political party in Germany was the latest jarring example of his willingness to embrace a provocative political issue and showed how hard-line immigration policy has emerged as the thread tightly knitting together a global patchwork of populist movements. The thrust of Mr. Vance\u2019s speech on Friday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/14\/multimedia\/14dc-vance1-tgbj\/14dc-vance1-tgbj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[163424,164768,896,39896,166301,4791,164426,169367,6155,51660,864,221,128437,163486,81146],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239275,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239273\/revisions\/239275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}