German chancellor rebukes Vance for supporting party that downplays Nazis

MUNICH – Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Saturday accused U.S. Vice President JD Vance of unacceptably interfering in his country’s imminent elections on behalf of a party that has played down atrocities committed by the Nazis 80 years ago.

A day after Vance stunned the Munich Security Conference by telling German leaders to drop their so-called firewall and allow the hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to enter their federal government, Scholz accused Vance of effectively violating a commitment to never again allow Germany to be led by fascists who could repeat the horrors of the Holocaust.

“A commitment to ‘never again’ is not reconcilable with support for the AfD,” Scholz said at the conference Saturday morning, in an address opening the gathering’s second day.

Scholz said the AfD had trivialized Nazi atrocities like the concentration camp at Dachau, which Vance visited Friday. The chancellor said Germany “would not accept” suggestions from outsiders about how to run its democracy – or directives to work with such a party.

“That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies,” Scholz said. “Where our democracy goes from here is for us to decide.”

Attendees at Vance’s speech had been expecting to hear details of the Trump administration’s plans for Ukraine peace talks and NATO defense policies. On Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine put the focus on the Ukraine war in his remarks, starkly laying out the threat from Russia’s battle-hardened military and making an impassioned appeal for Europeans to take their security into their own hands, including by forming an “Army of Europe” that would supplement U.S. power on the continent.

His speech drew standing ovations, in contrast to Vance’s speech the day before.

Scholz’s comments underscored a growing unease among Europe’s leaders about their relationship with the U.S., and their own domestic politics. They came as leaders scrambled at the summit to formulate a response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s sudden shift in Ukraine policy – and the possibility that he could cut the continent out of negotiations.

Just a few days before Vance’s remarks, Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on nearly every country the U.S. trades with. Then he spoke of negotiating an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine directly with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, leaving Europeans, including Ukraine, wondering if they would be included. Poland’s foreign minister said at the conference that President Emmanuel Macron of France had called an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss Ukraine on Sunday.

At the same time, far-right parties across Europe have gained ground by tapping into unease over immigration, which also helped propel Trump back to power in the United States. Vance’s comments suggested that a new kind of U.S. alliance with Europe was forming, one that bypasses the official leadership in favor of movements like Germany’s AfD and France’s National Rally.

Saturday’s sessions of the security conference were dominated by reactions, predominantly negative, to Vance’s speech – and Trump’s agenda.

Scholz was joined in his criticism by Friedrich Merz, his rival as chancellor candidate for the conservative Christian Democrats, whom polls suggest is the favorite to be Germany’s next leader.

Vance spent much of his speech Friday scolding Europeans for what he suggested were Soviet-style restrictions on free speech across the continent. On Saturday, Merz defended Germany’s laws that prohibit particular forms of speech, including hate speech and banned Nazi slogans, including on social media.

He also suggested that Trump’s administration was suppressing speech in the United States, after it moved Friday to kick the Associated Press out of reporting pools and off Trump’s plane because the news agency refuses to go along with Trump’s directive to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

“We stick to the rules which are given by our democratic institutions,” Merz said. “Free speech remains free speech and remains part of our open, democratic society. And fake news, hate speech and offenses remain subject to legal restraints and controlled by independent courts.

“I think I should say that in front of the events which took place in D.C. yesterday – we would never kick out the news agency, out of the press room of our chancellor.”

Merz also criticized Trump’s tariff policy, saying that Germany wanted to reduce tariffs, not increase them, and that “we don’t believe in trade conflicts.”

The White House had no immediate comment on the remarks by Scholz and Merz.

The comments were the latest in a series of critiques of Vance’s speech from German politicians before the election next Sunday. Scholz’s Social Democrats are running third or fourth in most polls. The AfD is running second, and its chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel, met Vance on Friday in Munich.

Parts of the AfD have been classified as extremist by German intelligence. Some of its members have been convicted of violating German law against the use of Nazi slogans. Others have been arrested for trying to overthrow the federal government. So although AfD candidates have been able to win parliamentary seats, no other party has been willing to form a coalition with them to take control of the government.

That collective shunning of the AfD and other extremist parties is known as the firewall.

Vance took aim at it Friday, saying the AfD and other hard-right parties across Europe represented legitimate voter concerns about high levels of migration into European countries from the Middle East and elsewhere.

“There is no room for firewalls,” Vance said.

The vice president also called restrictions on free speech a greater threat to Europe than military aggression from Russia or China.

Scholz chided Vance for that focus in a question-and-answer session after his speech. He was asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, if Vance had made any points in his speech worth reflecting on.

“You mean all these very relevant discussions about Ukraine and security in Europe?” Scholz said, drawing laughter from the audience.

Then he addressed Vance’s critique of European speech restrictions directly.

“We should be very clear that free speech in Europe means that you are not attacking others in ways that are against legislation and laws we have in our country,” Scholz said. “And that’s the case. There is no difference between the digital world and the analog world to say it like this. And we have to be very clear that hate and all this, which is so bad for our societies, should be not the reality of public debate.”

Zelenskyy, in his remarks, focused on the question of European defense. He reiterated his position that the United States would be pivotal in securing any ceasefire in Ukraine but that it would need Europe to also step up. He pointed to what he said were intelligence warnings of Russian plans to conduct military exercises in Belarus next summer. He noted that Russia had invaded Ukraine after deploying troops to Belarus under the guise of exercises.

“Europe just needs to come together and start acting in a way that no one can say ‘No’ to Europe, boss it around, or treat it like a pushover,” Zelenskyy said.

Trump has said he wants access to minerals in Ukraine worth half a trillion dollars in exchange for continued military support; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent opened talks on that issue in Kyiv, Ukraine, this past week.

Zelenskyy, in a conversation with CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour after his speech, said, “We are still talking” about that possible deal.

He also said that Ukraine needed to be at the table at any ceasefire talks, and he asked to meet with Trump before any meeting that Trump has with Putin.

“It’s up to them, they can discuss anything they want, but not Ukraine without Ukraine,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.