Last week, US Vice President JD Vance addressed the Munich Security Conference and lectured an audience in Germany about why they should not be concerned about the spectacular rise of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party, which is polling at 20% in advance of this coming weekend’s general elections.
The centrist parties of the German government have been unanimous in their condemnation of AfD and have vowed not to work with it, given its national socialist tendencies, which mirror the language and goals not heard in Germany since the 1930s.
Vance took the opportunity to tell the Munich audience that in a democratic society no party should be ostracized. His words: “I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns or, worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process, protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy.”
Vance had met on Friday with the leader of AfD, after endorsing the party as a political partner, a stance Berlin dismissed as “unwelcome election interference.”
The reaction by the audience to Vance’s words was clearly one of discomfort and distaste. By the look on the faces of the participants, one could only surmise that they were thinking: Where does this young, inexperienced vice president of the US come off telling us we should not be concerned about right-wing extremism? No doubt, to them it must have seemed like the height of chutzpah for Vance to have taken this approach in Munich of all places, where Nazism was functionally born.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in his remarks to the assemblage after those of Vance, was crystal clear in his condemnation of any attempt to accommodate the views of AfD in the name of preserving democracy.
“That is not appropriate, especially not among friends and allies. We firmly reject that,” Scholz told the conference on Saturday, adding there were “good reasons” not to work with the AfD.
He continued, “Never again fascism, never again racism, never again aggressive war. That is why an overwhelming majority in our country opposes anyone who glorifies or justifies criminal National Socialism.”
Referring more broadly to Vance’s criticism of Europe’s curtailing of hate speech, which Vance likened to censorship, Scholz said: “Today’s democracies in Germany and Europe are founded on the historic awareness and realization that democracies can be destroyed by radical anti-democrats. And this is why we’ve created institutions that ensure that our democracies can defend themselves against their enemies, and rules that do not restrict or limit our freedom but protect it.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot added his voice to the defense of Europe’s stance on hate speech as well. “No one is required to adopt our model, but no one can impose theirs on us,” Barrot wrote on X from Munich. “Freedom of speech is guaranteed in Europe.”
There is, of course, a feeling among Gen Zers that it is past time to put the story to bed, once and for all, regarding what happened in Europe in the middle of the 20th century. After all, people in their 30s and 40s have no connection to what their grandparents might have been guilty of 100 years ago.
2025 is not 1933.
All of that may be true, of course. This is 2025 and not 1933. The world has come through a massive world war, a cold war, and mass migration movements that have changed society.
Nevertheless, if the errors of the past are to be put into the dustbin of history, what does a society do when the same tropes, racist epithets, and racial superiority concepts raise their ugly heads once again? Is it reasonable to expect a population whose history is that of Western Europe to have a kumbaya moment and embrace a political party bent on bringing Germany back to that most terrible of times? No thinking person would suggest that.
It is gratifying to see the younger generation take up the cudgel of responsibility in the public sphere and commit themselves to government service. Vance and his generation are to be commended for that, as are the political parties that subscribe to the need for new blood in the leadership.
Having said that, there is still no replacement for experience and the value it brings to judgment calls such as those made in Munich last week.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant said: “Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.” A lesson needed to be learned by those who choose to perform on the world’s stage.
The writer has lived in Israel for 41 years, and is founder and chair of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also the founder and chairman of the American State Offices Association, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairman of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.