War of Words

JD Vance took Europe by surprise when he deemed a "retreat" of free speech one of the biggest threats to the continent. Newsweek explores freedom of expression there and in the U.S.

- by JAMES BICKERTON

U.S. VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE SENT SHOCKWAVES across Europe in February when he used his speech at the Munich Security Conference to say that free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.

The event was expected to focus on the war between Russia and Ukraine and increasing European defense expenditure, according to the BBC.

Instead, the former Ohio senator argued that the biggest threat to Europe “is not Russia, it’s not China” but rather its withdrawal “from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States.”

His address triggered an immediate rebuke from German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who described his remarks as “not acceptable.”

It also sparked a wider debate about the state of free speech across Europe. Speaking to Newsweek, a British man arrested for silently praying near an abortion clinic, who was cited in Vance’s speech, and a columnist investigated by police over a social media post, backed Vance’s remarks. But one prominent European legal scholar accused Vance of “lies, distortion and misinformation.” Vance had argued that the primary threat to the continent comes “from within,” citing what he called attacks on free speech and political leaders opening “the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.”

He said that “in Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” and that “you cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail.”

Vance referred to EU commissioners threatening to shut down social media to combat “hateful content,” German police raiding “citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments” and Sweden convicting “a Christian activist for participating in Quran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder.”