Thin-skinned German minister melts down over Vance's speech: 'Not acceptable'

Vice President JD Vance minced no words in his Friday address at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, putting various European nations on blast for their heavy-handed suppression of political movements and ideas unfavorable to their respective ruling classes; for their dismissal of citizens' concerns and common sense; for their routine attacks on religious liberties; and for their ruinous mass migration policies.

"The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia. It's not China. It's not any other external actor," said Vance. "What I worry about is the threat from within."

Vance's speech clearly struck a chord, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, a member of the Social Democratic Party, to spend some of his time onstage refuting the suggestion that democracy and free speech are on the decline in his and other European nations.

"I had a speech I prepared today," said the German socialist. "It was supposed to be about security in Europe. But I cannot start in the way I originally intended."

"This democracy was called into question by the U.S. vice president," continued Pistorius. "He speaks of the annulment of democracy, and, if I understood him correctly, he compares the condition of Europe with the condition that prevails in some authoritarian regimes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not acceptable."

Pistorius staked his claim on shaky ground.

Alternative for Germany is a right-leaning populist party founded in 2013 by free-market economists keen to strengthen German sovereignty and enraged by the European Union's bailout of Greece and other debtor nations. It has since also taken aim at mass migration, open borders, climate alarmism, Islamization, and gender ideology.

The AFD has enjoyed considerable success in recent elections, placing second in the European Parliament election in June and enjoying representation in 14 of the country's 16 state legislatures. Recent polls indicate that where the upcoming German election is concerned, AFD has a lock on second place.

'In our democracy, every opinion has a voice.'

While Pistorius suggested that democracy is strong in Germany and the country's political establishment protects the rights of those who disagree with it, German authorities have worked feverishly to ban, vilify, disarm, de-bank, and criminalize the party. In certain German states, such as Saxony and Thuringia, the AFD has been classified as a "right-wing extremist" group.

Not only has the German establishment taken aim at the AFD, it has also clamped down on members' factual assertions deemed hateful by the powers that be.

Blaze News previously reported that Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a member of the popular Alternative for Germany party, was convicted of a "hate crime" in May for sharing statistics about the disproportionate number of gang rapes committed by immigrants.

Pistorius suggested that the Europe described by Vance — where establishmentarians dismiss citizens, shut down elections, and run in fear of their own voters — "is not the Europe, not the democracy where I live and where I conduct my election campaign right now, and this is not the democracy that I witness every day in our parliament. In our democracy, every opinion has a voice."

Germany's Bundestag was just weeks ago debating banning the AFD. Evidently panicked over the alliance of the AFD and the Christian Democratic Union party on immigration, 124 parliamentarians introduced a motion urging an investigation into whether the platforming of certain voices in the German democracy is unconstitutional.

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