German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses delegates at the Munich Security Conference
Photo: MSC/Tobias Koehler
MUNICH — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz received rapturous applause from European officials in a fiery speech at the Munich Security Conference that took issue with controversial claims from US Vice President JD Vance surrounding alleged democratic infringements across Europe, hate speech and supposed mistreatment of the far-right, Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
“We will not accept that people who look at Germany from the outside intervene in our democracy, in our elections and in the democratic opinion forming process in the interest of this party,” said Scholz. “That is just not done, certainly among friends and allies. We resolutely reject this.”
He went on, “as a strong democracy, we are absolutely clear that the extreme right should be out of political control and out of political decision making processes and that there will be no cooperation with them….I think there is strong consensus between all relevant parties in Germany” on the matter. “Where our democracy goes from here is for us to decide” Scholz added.
German elections are set to take place next week after the collapse of Scholz’s three party coalition, with polling indicating that the AfD, whose critics have compared them to neo-Nazis, is on course to return the second largest vote, behind the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Scholz’s Social Democratic Party of Germany is sitting in third place.
Scholz’s comments came the day after Vance appeared at Munich and gave a speech blasting European politicians for what he called suppressing far-right parties in their countries — in essence, using the security forum, which is traditionally a home for cross-Atlantic coalition building on defense issues, to attack America’s allies.
Vance’s remarks suggesting Europe’s main threat sits “from within” seemed to shock attendees here. US President Donald Trump, who did not make the trip to Munich, endorsed the Vance message saying, it was a “very good speech, actually very brilliant.”
Following the speech, European officials, who have been cautious in their comments about the newly-inaugurated Trump administration, seemed ready to drop the veil of politeness, with Scholz — seeking to bolster his party’s diminishing chances at home — providing the most open pushback.
Asked on stage after his address if there was anything in Vance’s speech worth reflecting on, Scholz sarcastically replied, “You mean all this very relevant discussions about Ukraine and security in Europe?” Those gathered hummed with laughter, amid a sense that Vance’s blindside attack on European democracy has thrown transatlantic relations into a tailspin.
Vance’s words have demonstrated that the US looks to be more of “a divisive force, perhaps not [a] uniting force in Europe,” Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis, told Breaking Defense on the sidelines of the conference.
Polyakova said another delegate at the conference had spoken of how a “two-front” war has effectively emerged for Europe, comprising of the conventional conflict with Russia and a fight with the US over “values and principles.”
Ukraine Major Focus At Munich
In the lead up to the conference, Trump administration officials have moved away from Ukraine’s long held conditions for securing peace with Russia: the return of illegally seized territory by Russia and future US security guarantees.
In addition, comments from Trump have raised fears that he plans to negotiate directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine, sidelining Kyiv and its European allies entirely. European leaders here have been pushing the message that Ukraine must be involved in such talks, including Swedish defense minister Pål Jonson, who told Breaking Defense on Friday that “There can be no talking about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
“We don’t know what the US position is” on Ukraine, said Polyakova. “The last few days, we’ve heard a lot of different ideas and a lot of different positions from various parts of the administration here in Munich.
“There is no policy, there is no strategy. There’s a threat and it’s unclear to me how real that is.”
Ukraine giving up half of its mineral reserves in exchange for billions of dollars of US military aid has also been floated by the Trump administration. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly this week presented Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a draft contract that would sign half of Ukraine’s mineral wealth to the US, something the Ukrainian leader reportedly did not agree to.
“There’s a deal to be had there,” said Polyakova. “The Ukrainians could basically say, ‘look, 60 percent of these deposits are in Russian occupied territory, you give us the weapons to take back the land, you can have it. And that is the kind of transactional mentality that I think is appealing to Trump.”
Despite Scholz being quick to dismiss Vance’s failure to make Ukraine more of a priority, he made it clear that at a fundamental level, he is on board with US thinking.
“We stand at the side of Ukraine, which has come under attack, and I’m therefore pleased that the American administration has reaffirmed our common objective of preserving the sovereign independence of Ukraine,” he said. “This sovereign independence has also been reflected in the negotiations.”
He added that it is “right Ukraine is involved as we begin to talk directly with Russia.”
Scholz also revealed that he has spoken to Putin “several times” and put to him what a “just peace” looks like.
“I trust that we all agree that Russia’s war against Ukraine must end as quickly as possible,” he remarked.
This article was originally published by a breakingdefense.com . Read the Original article here. .