Vance meets German far-right leader as he criticises ‘firewalls’ in Europe

US vice president JD Vance has met the leader of a German far-right party during a visit to Munich, nine days before a German election and after lecturing European leaders about the state of democracy.

He said there is no place for “firewalls”.

Mr Vance met with Alice Weidel, the co-leader and candidate for chancellor of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, his office said.

That stance is often referred to as a “firewall”.

Polls put Alternative for Germany (AfD) in second place going into the February 23 election with about 20% support.

News of the meeting came after top German officials pushed back hard against Mr Vance’s complaints about the state of democracy in Europe, with the defence minister calling it “unacceptable” to draw a parallel with authoritarian governments.

Boris Pistorius and Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended German mainstream parties’ firewall.

Mr Vance said at the Munich Security Conference that he fears free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.

“To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election,” he said.

“If I understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes,” the German defence minister said.

“That is unacceptable, and it is not the Europe and not the democracy in which I live and am currently campaigning.”

Mr Vance also told European leaders that “if you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you”.

He said no democracy could survive telling millions of voters that their concerns “are invalid or unworthy of even being considered.”

“There’s no room for firewalls.”

Mr Pistorius countered that “every opinion has a voice in this democracy. It makes it possible for partly extremist parties like AfD to campaign completely normally, just like every other party”.

He noted that Ms Weidel was on prime-time German television on Thursday night along with the other contenders.

But he added that “democracy doesn’t mean that the loud minority is automatically right”, and that “democracy must be able to defend itself against the extremists who want to destroy it”.

“Out of the experiences of Nazism, the democratic parties in Germany have a joint consensus – that is the firewall against extreme right-wing parties,” he wrote.

Bavarian governor Markus Soder – a prominent figure in Germany’s centre-right opposition bloc, which leads pre-election polls – told reporters that “we take every opinion seriously, but we decide ourselves with whom we form a coalition”, German news agency dpa reported.

Mr Vance’s meeting with Ms Weidel came after she was received on Wednesday by Hungary’s right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The vice president’s office said Mr Vance also met on Friday with German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and opposition leader Friedrich Merz, while he met Mr Scholz earlier this week when both were in Paris for a summit on artificial intelligence.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store took issue with how Mr Vance urged European officials to stem irregular migration in Friday’s speech.

Mr Vance said the European electorate didn’t vote to open “floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants”.

“He speaks as though we are not focused on immigration in Europe,” Mr Gahr Store said.

“I mean, this is the big theme in every country, that we want to have control of our borders.”

“I don’t agree with him that what’s happening in Ukraine, what’s happening in Russia, what’s happening in China is less important than the presumed loss of freedom of speech in Europe,” Mr Gahr Store said.