Vice President Vance booed in Europe: 'There's a new sheriff in Washington'

LondonUS Vice President JD Vance boos European allies in a monumental way The Munich Security Conference. Without mentioning Ukraine once, in a speech lasting just over twenty minutes, Vance insisted on Friday that the continent cannot abuse its trust in NATO, cannot talk about democracy "without living according to its basic principles" or moving away from its fundamental values, and cannot "trample" on freedom of expression. Vance, in fact, assured that Europe is more in danger from "internal threats", but that it is only concerned about external ones.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has described Vance's speech as "unacceptable." On the contrary, Russian public television has praised the American's words.

The new policy of the Republican administration is clear. And so is the language of a harasser. "There is a new sheriff in Washington, and under Donald Trump's leadership we may not agree with his views, but we will fight to defend his right to express them," a statement Vance has filled with the constant reminder that Europe must do more for itself, a further reference to increased military spending.

But perhaps freedom of speech has been the issue on which Donald Trump's number two has been most forceful. He has delivered a fierce criticism, saying that what worried him most was not China or Russia, but the internal threat facing Europe. "We have been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values; everything from our policy on Ukraine to digital censorship is presented as a defence of democracy. But when we see European courts annul elections [referring to Romania] and senior officials threaten to cancel others, we should ask ourselves if we are holding ourselves to an adequate standard. And I say we, because I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team. We must go beyond talking about democratic values. We must live them."

Vance said this without blushing, forgetting that the current US president, Donald Trump, is going to lead a coup to subvert the outcome

Vance has also condemned European regulation of Big Tech, calling it “undemocratic” and insisting that it harms freedom of expression. “Romania directly annulled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its neighbours. The argument was that Russian disinformation had infected the Romanian election, but I would ask my European friends to have some perspective. You can go into your elections – we certainly believe that too – and it can condemn you on the world stage, even.”