U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has harshly criticized the EU’s approach to fighting propaganda, including Russian propaganda, and countering foreign meddling in the elections.
Vance’s controversial speech was delivered at the Munich Security Conference. He devoted the main part of his speech to criticizing the EU’s policy on countering fakes and propaganda.
The US vice president began by saying that the United States believes that there is no reason to talk about a common vision of democracy on both sides of the Atlantic.
“For years, we have been told that we are helping you for the sake of common values,” he recalled, and then proceeded to argue that European values are no longer relevant to the new US administration, as European measures to combat propaganda, in his opinion, restrict freedom of speech.
As an example to prove this point, he cited the cancellation of the Romanian presidential election results due to Russian interference linked to the promotion of a far-right and anti-EU candidate via ad campaigns on social media.
“You may think it’s about Russian interference through social media… But if your democracy can be destroyed by a few thousand dollars worth of social media advertising, then maybe that democracy wasn’t that strong,” Vance mockingly said.
Vance emphasized that because of these considerations, he does not see room for US-EU cooperation in the security sector either.
“There can be no security if you fight the thoughts, the faith of your people,” the vice president said. “If you are afraid of the voices in your country, then America will not help you, and you will not give anything to America,” he emphasized.
Despite such harsh statements, Vance’s speech did not provide details on what concrete actions the United States would take based on this logic. It is also noteworthy that in his speech at the Munich Security Conference, he did not mention “hard security” issues, such as Russia’s war against Ukraine, at all.
