“We saw the horrors wrought by these decisions yesterday in this very city … . Why did this happen in the first place?” Vance asked.

“An asylum-seeker, often a young man in his mid-20s, already known to police, rams a car into a crowd and shatters a community. How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take

Vice President JD Vance called out European leaders in a speech Friday at the Munich Security Conference, arguing that Europeans must commit to free speech and fair elections if they are to have societies worth fighting for.

“The crisis this Continent is facing, the one I believe we all face together, is one of our own making,” Vance said at the three-day conference in Germany. “If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there’s nothing America can do for you.”

Vance used the security conference speech not to talk about external threats, but to express the Trump administration’s strong disapproval of what it sees as an assault on democratic values throughout Europe.

Speaking just minutes after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke proudly of her plans to expand the European Union’s economic ties with Ukraine, Vance came with a stern message.

“While the Trump administration is very concerned with European security … the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe—it’s not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within,” Vance said. “The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States.”

The vice president proceeded to harshly criticize the European elite for their aloof reaction to Romania canceling its presidential election just days before the scheduled vote—a cancellation supposedly motivated by fears of Russian social media influence.

“I was struck that a former European commissioner [Thierry Breton] went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things don’t go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany, too,” Vance said, adding: “These cavalier statements are shocking to American ears. For years, we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values.”

Vance proceeded to draw a parallel between Western European leaders and the Eastern Bloc of old.

“The Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this Continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections,” Vance said.

“Were they the good guys? Certainly not. And thank God they lost the Cold War. They lost because they neither valued, nor respected all the extraordinary blessings of liberty.”

Vance went through a laundry list of Western European infringements on free speech, including German police raids against citizens accused of “posting anti-feminist comments,” as well as the prosecution of a British man who prayed next to an abortion clinic.

“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,” he said.

The vice president urged European leaders to respect the legitimacy of political parties that seek to curb mass immigration, citing the car-ramming attack in Munich on Thursday by an Afghan asylum-seeker that left at least 36 people injured.

“I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration. Today, almost one in five people living in this country moved here from abroad. That is, of course, an all-time high … it’s the result of a series of conscious decisions made by politicians,” said Vance. 

“We saw the horrors wrought by these decisions yesterday in this very city … . Why did this happen in the first place?” Vance asked.

“An asylum-seeker, often a young man in his mid-20s, already known to police, rams a car into a crowd and shatters a community. How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction?”

Vance urged leaders not to dismiss the concerns of Europeans who now seek to curb mass migration.

“More and more, all over Europe, they’re voting for political leaders who promise to put an end to out-of-control migration. I happen to agree with a lot of these concerns, but you don’t have to agree with me. I just think that people care,” he said.

He closed with a harsh reprimand of European leaders.

“It is the business of democracy to adjudicate these big questions at the ballot box. I believe the dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections, or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy,” Vance said.

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