The speech of the US Vice President in Munich has sparked discussions and, in some cases, harsh criticism. Our readers and listeners should form their own opinion: we are publishing the speech here verbatim.
" The threat that worries me most about Europe, however, is not Russia, not China, not any other external actor. What worries me is the threat from within.JD Vance"

Seldom has a speech by an American Vice President heated up tempers as much as that of JD Vance. Democracy is in danger in many European countries, was Vance's core message. In his speech, he also criticized the other parties' distancing themselves from the AfD and said there was "no room for firewalls."

His statements were "almost an intrusive way of dealing with the Europeans, especially with us Germans," said Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz afterwards. Chancellor Olaf Scholz accused Vance of "interfering in the democratic formation of opinion." That was not appropriate. Scholz continued: "We ourselves will decide how our democracy will continue."

Robert Habeck said after the speech: "What Vance did yesterday is none of his business. That has to be made clear." He added, addressing Vance: "Mind your own business."

So that our readers can form their own opinion and classify the criticism of the German leadership for themselves, we have decided to publish the speech of the US Vice President in full and verbatim in a German translation.

The speech in full:

"Well, thank you, and thank you to all the delegates, dignitaries and media gathered here, and thank you especially to the hosts of the Munich Security Conference for making such an incredible event possible. We are, of course, thrilled to be here. We are happy to be here.

And, you know, one of the things I wanted to talk about today is, of course, our shared values. And, you know, it's great to be back in Germany. As you heard earlier, I was here last year as a US Senator. I saw Secretary of State David Lammy and joked that we both had different jobs last year than we do now.

But now it is time for all of our countries, for all of us who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective peoples, to use it wisely to improve our lives. And I would like to say that during my time here over the last 24 hours, I have been fortunate enough to spend some time outside the walls of this conference. And I have been very impressed by the hospitality of the people, even while they are still suffering from yesterday's terrible attack.

The first time I was in Munich was actually with my wife, who is here with me today, on a private trip. I have always loved the city of Munich, and I have always loved its people. And I just want to say that we are very moved. Our thoughts and prayers are with Munich and all those affected by the evil that has been done to this beautiful community. We are thinking of you. We are praying for you. And we will certainly be cheering you on in the days and weeks to come.

Europe must stand up for its own defense

I hope this is not the last applause I get. But we are gathering at this conference, of course, to talk about security. And usually by that we mean threats to our external security. I see many great military leaders gathered here today. While the Trump administration is very concerned about the security of Europe and believes that we can reach a sensible agreement between Russia and Ukraine, we also believe that in the years to come it is important for Europe to take a big stand on its own defense.

But the threat that worries me most about Europe is not Russia, not China, not any other external actor. What worries me is the threat from within. Europe's retreat from some of its most fundamental values, values that it shares with the United States of America.

"We are on the same team"

I was amazed that a former EU Commissioner recently appeared on television and sounded excited that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election, warning that if things don't go according to plan, the exact same thing could happen in Germany.

Such flippant statements are shocking to American ears. For years, we have been told that everything we fund and support is done in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is portrayed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts annulling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel more elections, we should ask ourselves whether we are holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say "ourselves" because I firmly believe we are on the same team. We must do more than just talk about democratic values. We must live them.

“What happened to some of the victors of the Cold War?”

Within the living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned the defenders of democracy against far more tyrannical forces on this continent. And look at the side in that fight that censored dissidents, closed churches, canceled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not. And thank God they lost the Cold War.

They lost because they did not value or respect the extraordinary blessings of freedom. The freedom to surprise, to make mistakes, to invent, to build. It turns out you can't mandate innovation or creativity. Nor can you force people to think, feel or believe what they should. And we believe these things are connected.

Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it is sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the victors of the Cold War. I look to Brussels, where EU commissioners are warning citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest - once they have detected what they consider to be "hateful content".

Freedom of expression is in danger in Europe

Or to this country, where police have raided citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of a “day of action against online misogyny.”

I look to Sweden, where two weeks ago the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Koran burnings that led to the murder of his friend. And as the judge in his case frighteningly noted, Sweden's laws protecting free speech do not grant, and I quote, "a carte blanche to say or do anything without the risk of offending a group that shares that belief."

And perhaps most worryingly, I look to our much esteemed friends in the United Kingdom, where the backsliding on conscience rights has targeted the fundamental freedoms of particularly religious Britons. I look to the United Kingdom, where the backsliding on conscience rights has targeted the fundamental freedoms of particularly religious Britons. Just over two years ago, the British Government charged Adam Smith Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and praying silently for three minutes.

He didn't interfere with anyone, he didn't interact with anyone - he just prayed silently to himself. And after British police noticed him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam simply replied that it was for his unborn son, whom he and his former girlfriend had aborted years earlier.

But officials were unimpressed. Adam was found guilty of breaching the government's new buffer zone law - a law that criminalises silent prayer and other acts that could influence a person's decision within a 200-metre radius of an abortion facility. He was ordered to pay thousands of pounds in prosecution costs.

I wish I could say that this was an isolated incident, a crazy example of a poorly written law being used against a single person. But no - last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose homes were in so-called safe access areas, warning them that even private prayer in their own homes could be considered a breach of the law. Of course, the government urged recipients to report any suspected fellow citizens who might be guilty of thought crimes. In the UK and across Europe, I fear, freedom of speech is in retreat.

And in the interest of comedy, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I must admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from Europe, but from my own country. The previous administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation. Misinformation such as the idea that the coronavirus most likely escaped from a lab in China. Our own government encouraged private companies to silence people who dared to speak a truth that later turned out to be obvious.

So I come to you today not just with an observation, but with an offer. And as desperate as the Biden administration seemed to be to silence people who speak out, the Trump administration will do just the opposite. And I hope we can work together on that.

There's a new sheriff in Washington, D.C. And under Donald Trump's leadership, we may not agree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to express them in the public space - whether we agree or not.

We have now reached a point where the situation has become so bad that Romania summarily annulled the results of a presidential election last December – based on vague suspicions from an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors.

As I understand it, the reasoning was that Russian disinformation infected the Romanian election. But I would ask my European friends to keep a little perspective. You can think it's wrong for Russia to buy social media ads to influence elections - we certainly do. You can even condemn it on the world stage. But if your democracy can be destroyed by a few hundred thousand dollars in digital advertising from a foreign country, then it was not particularly stable to begin with.

The good news, however, is that I think your democracies are much more robust than many seem to fear. And I really believe that allowing our citizens to express their opinions will make them even stronger. Which, of course, brings us back to Munich - where the organizers of this conference have excluded lawmakers from populist parties, both left and right, from participating in these talks.

Again, we don't have to agree with everything or anything people say, but when political leaders represent a significant constituency, it is our responsibility to at least engage in dialogue with them.

For many of us across the Atlantic, it increasingly looks like old, established interests are hiding behind ugly, Soviet-sounding terms like “misinformation” and “disinformation” because they simply cannot bear the thought of anyone with an alternative view expressing a different opinion, let alone voting differently or, God forbid, winning an election.

This is a security conference. And I'm sure you've come here to discuss how exactly you plan to increase your defense spending in the coming years in line with new goals. And that's great. Because as President Trump has made clear, he believes our European friends must play a bigger role in the future of this continent.

But let me also ask you a question: how can you even begin to think about budgetary issues when you don't even know what exactly you are defending? I have already heard a lot in my discussions and had many, many great discussions with many people gathered here in this room. I have heard a lot about what you have to defend yourself against. And of course that is important. But what seems a little less clear to me - and certainly to many citizens of Europe - is what exactly you are defending. What is the positive vision that animates this common security alliance that we all think is so important?

And I believe deeply that there is no security when you are afraid of the voices, opinions and consciences that guide your own people. Europe faces many challenges. But the crisis that this continent now faces - the crisis that I believe affects us all together - is one of our own making.

If you run from your own voters, America can't do anything for you. And you can't do anything for the American people who elected me and President Trump. You need democratic mandates to accomplish anything of value in the years ahead. Haven't we learned anything from the fact that weak mandates lead to unstable outcomes? But there is so much of value that can be accomplished by getting a democratic mandate that comes from becoming more receptive to the voices of your own people.

If you want to have competitive economies, if you want to enjoy affordable energy and secure supply chains, then you need mandates to govern. Because to make all of this possible, difficult decisions have to be made. And of course, we know that all too well in America.

You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring or jailing your opponents - be they the opposition leader, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news. Nor can you win a mandate by not listening to your constituents on fundamental issues such as who gets to be part of our shared society. And of all the pressing challenges facing the nations represented here, I believe there is none more pressing than that of mass immigration.

Today, almost one in five people living in this country moved here from abroad. This is, of course, a historic high. There is a similar figure in the United States, by the way - also a historic high. The number of immigrants coming to the EU from non-EU countries doubled between 2021 and 2022 alone. And of course, it has continued to rise since then. And we know that this situation did not emerge out of nowhere. It is the result of a series of conscious decisions by politicians across the continent and in other parts of the world over a period of a decade.

We saw the horrors that these decisions brought in this city yesterday. And of course I cannot mention it without thinking of the terrible victims whose beautiful winter day in Munich was ruined. Our thoughts and prayers are and will remain with them.

But why did this happen in the first place? It's a horrific story, but one we've heard far too often in Europe - and unfortunately too often in the United States. An asylum seeker, often a young man in his mid-20s who is already known to the police, drives a car into a crowd of people and tears a community apart.

How many times must we suffer these horrific setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilisation in a new direction? No voter on this continent voted at the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of uncontrolled immigrants. But do you know what they voted for? In England they voted for Brexit - whether you agree or not, they voted for it. And across Europe, more and more people are electing political leaders who promise to end uncontrolled migration.

Well, I agree with many of those concerns, but you don't have to agree with me. I just believe that people care about their homes, they want to protect their dreams, they care about their safety and the ability to provide for themselves and their children. And they're smart. I think that's one of the most important things I've learned in my short time in politics.

Contrary to what you may hear a few mountains away in Davos, citizens of all our nations do not see themselves as mere "educated animals" or interchangeable cogs in a global economy. And it is hardly surprising that they do not want to be pushed around or run roughshod over by their leaders. It is the job of democracy to settle these big questions at the ballot box. I believe that dismissing people, ignoring their concerns, or - worse - excluding the media, elections, or the people themselves from the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the surest way to destroy democracy.

Expressing your opinion is not election interference - even when people outside your country are expressing their views, and even when those people are very influential. And believe me, I say this with humor: If American democracy survived ten years of Greta Thunberg's admonitions, you can survive a few months of Elon Musk.

But what German democracy - and no democracy at all, American, German, or European - will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and worries, their hopes and pleas for relief, are invalid or not even worthy of serious consideration. Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the people's voice counts. There is no room for firewalls. Either you abide by that principle - or you don't.

Europeans, the people, have a voice. European leaders have a choice. And I firmly believe that we need not be afraid of the future. You can accept what your people tell you - even if it is surprising, even if you do not agree. And when you do that, you can face the future with certainty and confidence, knowing that the nation is behind you. And that, for me, is the great magic of democracy. It is not in these stone buildings or beautiful hotels. It is not even in the great institutions that we have built as a shared society.

To believe in democracy is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and a voice. And if we refuse to listen to that voice, even our greatest achievements will have little lasting effect. As Pope John Paul II, for me one of the most extraordinary champions of democracy on this or any other continent, once said: "Do not be afraid."

We should not be afraid of our people, even when they express views that do not agree with the leadership. Thank you all. Good luck to you all. God bless you."

Source: Editorial staff; T.Weyermann