February 14, 2025. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance delivers remarks in Germany, at the Munich Security Conference. The audience expects him to talk about foreign policy, geopolitics, and threats facing the world.
Instead, he says that the most worrying threat today is "the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values." He adds that European countries and institutions are undermining democracy and freedom of speech -- and gives examples.
"A former European commissioner," Vance states, "went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election."
In fact, Thierry Breton, the European Union's former internal market commissioner, admitted in a French television interview that the Romanian Constitutional Court had bowed to EU pressure and annulled the country's presidential elections because right-wing candidate, Călin Georgescu, had a good chance of winning. "We did it in Romania," Breton said, "and of course we will have to do it, if necessary, in Germany."
On February 26, when Georgescu went to register as a candidate for the presidential election re-run organized a few months after the annulled election, he was arrested by the police and charged with "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order." To date, the Romanian authorities have provided no evidence to substantiate that allegation.
"The very same thing could happen in Germany, too," Vance said in his Munich speech.
The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party which participated in the German parliamentary elections of February 23, came in second place with 20.8%. The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which won the plurality of votes (28.5%), however, chose to boycott the AfD and instead chose to form a government with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) -- which formed the previous government and which the Germans had just rejected, giving it only 16.4% of the vote.
Germany's new chancellor, CDU leader Friedrich Merz, had declared during the election campaign, "We will not work with the party that calls itself Alternative for Germany -- not before [the election], not after, never."
Merz stuck to his word. Just after the election, Germany's domestic intelligence agency designated the AfD an "extremist organization" and a "threat to democracy". The reason given was that the AfD is "anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim". The AfD could be banned by the government.
Vance continued:
"I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest, the moment they spot what they've judged to be 'hateful content.'"
Indeed, in 2022, the European Union adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is supposed to "protect the rights of social media users" and "provide a safer online environment" by "limiting the spread of illegal and harmful content." What constitutes "illegal and harmful content" was not defined and could be anything the European Commission defines as such, along with the right to impose fines and shut the websites down.
Although Vance's claims were indisputable, the officials present immediately expressed shock. Statements from European political leaders exploded:
Germany's Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Vance's remarks were "not appropriate," adding:
"Never again fascism, never again racism, never again aggressive war... Today's democracies in Germany and Europe are founded on the historic awareness and realization that democracies can be destroyed by radical anti-democrats... we've created institutions that ensure that our democracies can defend themselves against their enemies, and rules that do not restrict or limit our freedom but protect it."
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated that "Freedom of speech is guaranteed in Europe."
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted:
"We've had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time... in relation to free speech in the UK, I'm really proud of that—our history there."
Christoph Heusgen, chairman of the Munich Security Conference Chairman, at the end of the conference, said that Vance's remarks had made it "a European nightmare.... We have to fear that our common basis of values is not common anymore." He then broke down in tears.
It is quite possible that the "common basis of values" that once bound Europe and the United States is no longer common. If that is true, however, it is for the reasons listed by Vance: that European leaders and governments have moved away from what once bound Europe and the United States, such as freedom of speech and free and fair elections, the results of which are actually enacted.
Scholz's argument about fascism, racism and the threat to democracy is simply unfounded, if not an inversion of the facts. Georgescu made no fascist or racist statements and has never threatened democracy. On the contrary, he has affirmed his desire to defend national sovereignty and Western civilization and has declared himself close to the positions of the Trump administration, which are neither fascist nor racist.
In 2018, AfD politician Alexander Gauland said that "Hitler and the Nazis are just a speck of bird poop in more than 1,000 years of successful German history."
In 2017, Björn Höcke, the leader of the AfD in the German state of Thuringia, called the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin a "memorial of shame."
But the words of Gauland and Höcke do not represent the AfD party line. Gauland clarified his remarks only days later, saying:
"Many saw the expression as an inappropriate trivialization... nothing could be further from me than to allow such an impression to arise.... I regret the resulting impression. It was never my intention to trivialize or deride the victims of this criminal system.
The reason given by Germany's domestic intelligence agency for designating AfD an "extremist organization" is neither fascism nor racism. In fact, not a single AfD leader advocates fascist or racist positions, and, what actually may be objectionable to many Europeans, is that AfD is "the most pro-Israel and philo-Semitic" party in Germany.
"That's not democracy," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said about the German domestic intelligence agency's decision, "it's tyranny in disguise."
Ironically, in the United States, Democratic National Committee (DNC) this month voided the election of David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta as DNC vice-chairmen, ostensibly on "procedural grounds." Following his election, Hogg had said he planned to raise funds to support challengers in the primaries of incumbent Democrat officeholders. In June, the DNC will be considering a re-do of the election, presumably in the hope of get a pre-determined outcome. Meanwhile, many Democrats endlessly criticize the Republican Party for "destroying democracy."
Contrary to what the French foreign minister claimed, freedom of speech is declining in Europe, particularly in France. Former journalist and presidential candidate Éric Zemmour has been convicted countless times and handed heavy fines simply for criticizing Islam and Muslim immigration. His most recent sentencing took place on March 26, 2025. After the murder of a young Frenchman by a gang of Muslims, Zemmour spoke of the presence in France of criminals who are "Arab-Muslim scum." He was found guilty of delivering a "racist insult."
Novelist Renaud Camus was convicted in 2014 of incitement to hatred for saying that France was being "invaded" by Muslim immigrants.
The French television channel C8 was shut down by the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom), for "lack of diversity and pluralism." CNews, another French television channel, was fined heavily by Arcom for the same "crime" and remains at risk of being shut down. Any television station similar to America's Fox News would not be allowed to exist in France.
Freedom of speech in the United Kingdom, contrary to what Starmer said, is very much in danger. In recent months, British citizens have been sentenced to prison for posting messages critical of Islam on social media, and for even praying near an abortion clinic.
This anti-democratic drift has taken hold in several European countries. Politicians and parties who disagree with the worldview of the officials in power are increasingly being excluded from any possibility of running for an official position:
In Germany, as mentioned, Merz chose to shut out the AfD.
In France, Marine Le Pen, who polls show is in first place for the 2027 presidential election, was sentenced to five years of election ineligibility and four years in prison for allegedly embezzling public funds. The sentence was supposed to go into effect immediately, without a temporary suspension of the conviction pending appeal. After that decision caused a scandal, the Paris Court of Appeal said it would examine the case and issue a final judgment in the summer of 2026.
Le Pen did not embezzle public funds. The judge defined as a crime that assistants to the National Rally's Members of European Parliament who worked in Strasbourg also worked in Paris for the party. The Democratic Movement, a centrist party led by French Prime Minister François Bayrou, did exactly the same thing as the National Rally with its MEPs' assistants, but Bayrou was acquitted by a judge.
In the Netherlands, when the Party for Freedom (PVV) won a plurality of the votes in November 2023 parliamentary elections and its leader, Geert Wilders, attempted to form a government, all the other political parties joined forces to prevent him from doing so until he was forced to withdraw.
In Austria, in September 2024, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) won a plurality of the votes in the parliamentary elections, and its leader, Herbert Kickl, was prevented from forming a government.
In Italy, on the other hand, when Brothers of Italy (FdI) -- a party with policies similar to those of the French National Rally, the Dutch PVV, and the Austrian FPÖ -- won the 2022 Italian parliamentary elections, its leader, Giorgia Meloni, was able to form a government and is now prime minister. The reason? Fdl happened to be part of an alliance with other right-of-center parties. Now, Meloni is the only politician disparagingly labeled by the European mainstream media as "far right" and able actually to enjoy the result of her election.
Most European leaders today refer to the parties and politicians they wish to exclude as "far right." The term is used to refer to racist, xenophobic and authoritarian parties. None of the parties mentioned above shows the slightest tendency toward racism, xenophobia and authoritarianism half as much as their opponents do. The parties being elbowed out, according to historian and author Daniel Pipes, are not "nationalist,", but patriotic, "defensive, not aggressive." Pipes describes them as "civilizationist":
"They cherish Europe's and the West's traditional culture and want to defend it from assault by immigrants aided by the left.... Civilizationalist parties are populist, anti-immigration, and anti-Islamization. Populist means nursing grievances against the system and a suspicion of an elite that ignores or denigrates those concerns."
The attacks on freedom of speech target statements warning that mass, unvetted migration might bring about a demographic "great replacement" of native Europeans, whose values are Judeo-Christian, by migrants from the Middle East, whose values are basically Islamic. The general apprehension about Islamic values eventually overwhelming European ones is a view condemned by most politicians, the media and the judiciary in Europe, even though the Muslim birthrate is vastly higher than the European one. This apprehension also stems from the fact that the majority of Muslims living in Europe neither integrates nor seems to wish to, and that the proportion of Muslims among criminals in Europe today is far higher than their share of the general population.
Many European leaders today appear blind to the consequences of ever-increasing immigration, and a growing Muslim presence in Europe. They are dismissive of the Muslims' continuing mass-migration, enthusiastic birthrate, and they remain stubbornly deaf to the concerns shouted by their non-Muslim citizenry.
These leaders seem to refuse to see that a serious demographic shift is taking place, even though it is highly visible. They also seem to refuse to see that this demographic shift is swiftly eroding Europe's traditional cultures.
Out-of-control immigration from the Muslim world continues year after year throughout Western Europe, while Germany's birthrate is 1.35 per woman. The figure for Austria is 1.58. For Italy, it is 1.31. For Spain, it is 1.41. The figure for France is 1.85. All of these are significantly far from replacement level, which is 2.1 per woman.
In every country in Western Europe, the birthrate of Muslims is significantly higher than that of the general population.
Even if many Europeans are not aware of the statistical data, they can see with their eyes that a population change is taking place, along with the corrosive destruction of their values and traditions. Voting for "civilizationist" parties, Zemmour has said, is the "reaction of people who do not want to die."
The key question for the future of Europe seems to be: Will "civilizationist" parties remain excluded from any access to power, or will they succeed in overcoming the barriers being put up in their path?
In Romania, George Simion, a presidential candidate whose ideas are close to those of Georgescu, won more than 40% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election and had a strong chance of being elected on May 18. Unexpectedly, he lost. The winner, who had the full support of the European Union, went from 21% in the first round to 53.6% in the second round, an extraordinary performance that probably needs to be analyzed.
In Germany, the AfD has now become the country's most popular party. The German intelligence agency mysteriously decided to walk back AfD's extremist label. In France, polls show that if Marine Le Pen cannot run, Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, has a good chance of being elected in 2027 despite being only 29 years old. In the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage's Reform UK party recently made large gains in English local elections. If Britain's general elections were held soon, would likely win.
The question at the heart of these issues is: Can the anti-democratic drift that has gripped several large European countries be stopped?
"European elites," wrote the American columnist Michael Barone, "seem to have convinced themselves that they must destroy democracy in order to save it."
Will it be possible to save democracy in Europe?
In a recent article, Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald wrote:
"Across the West, citizens are rebelling against demographic replacement. A battle is under way between their will and the will of the elites. If Germany's leaders continue to tell a quarter of the German population—decent, law-abiding individuals—that they are at best Hitler-adjacent and at worst Hitler-worshippers for wanting Germany's cultural identity preserved, if those leaders continue to suppress voices and votes, either there will be a massive upset in the halls of power and the people will be liberated, or the mechanisms of repression will grow more sweeping.
"Americans should hope for the former course."
Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
