Fascism arrives as your friend

U.S. vice president, JD Vance (he of the "childless cat ladies" fame, a remark that drew an instant rebuke from Jennifer Aniston), delivered a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference, eviscerating the Europeans for not listening to their voters and for being afraid of them.

- SUNIL SHARAN

Munich holds special significance. Adolf Hitler was born and raised in Austria, right across the border from Munich, where he spent ample time as a young man. Vance refused to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Germany but he met with Alice Weidel. Who is Alice Weidel?

Weidel is the face of the far-right in Germany. She leads the neo-Nazi party, Alliance for Democracy (AfD). In November 2023, with many Nazi motifs, a secret plan was hatched near Berlin not just to deport non-Germans from Germany but also all "unassimilated" German citizens. The criteria for judging assimilation was not specified, but it would have probably meant those who were not white and Christian and/or did not speak fluent German. The meeting was conducted with the utmost secrecy.