The Vance advance and the miserable EU elites

If there is one thing Europe’s progressive elites hate more than a populist uprising, it’s an American reminding them how low they have fallen. Enter JD Vance, the US Vice President, who took the stage at the Munich Security Conference and did precisely that.

With the accuracy of a seasoned boxer, Vance delivered blow after blow against the bureaucratic class running Europe into the ground, daring to point out the obvious: democracy in Europe is increasingly a façade, free speech is in retreat, and the continent’s leaders are more interested in ideological struggles than representing their own people.

The reaction was swift, hysterical, and frankly revealing. Europe’s leaders and media came out outraged — but not disputing the facts.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, usually as exciting as a boiled bratwurst without mustard, suddenly found some passion, barking that Germany would continue to keep “far-right” parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at bay — by any means necessary.

Translation: elections are only valid when they produce the correct results. If voters choose the “wrong” candidates, well, they must be ignorant, misled or manipulated by foreign agents. A convenient excuse, really, for ignoring democratic outcomes.

But Vance had done his homework. He pointed out how dissenting voices are being shut down. How leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán — actually elected by their people — are treated as dangerous extremists by Brussels’ self-appointed moral commissars. How in Romania the ruling class annulled a presidential election because the voters chose a conservative outsider.

Vance also touched a sensitive nerve when he spoke about free speech — or what is left of it. Indeed, across Europe, people now risk prosecution for “wrongthink”.

Express concerns about mass migration? That is “hate speech”. Question the wisdom of gender ideology in schools? That is “inciting intolerance”. Share an inconvenient scientific study about climate change? That is “misinformation”.

And don’t even think about criticizing the EU’s sacred cows. Ursula von der Leyen and her army of technocrats have made sure that Big Tech will de-platform you before you can say “Brussels diktat”.

The media, of course, presented Vance’s speech as an “attack” on Europe, but did not actually engage with his points. No one refuted his claims. No one explained why it is acceptable to prosecute a British grandmother for praying outside an abortion clinic, or why a journalist in France was arrested for calling a migrant criminal a — wait for it — “migrant criminal”.

Because they cannot.

What really irked Europe’s ruling class was the realisation that Vance was not just addressing Americans. He was speaking to millions of Europeans who feel abandoned by their leaders.

The Netherlands just saw the meteoric rise of Geert Wilders. France is bracing for another nationalist surge. German voters are drifting away from the establishment. And let us not forget the Eastern Europeans, who never bought into the woke utopia in the first place.

For Brussels, this is terrifying. The EU’s strategy has long been to discredit and side-line “populists” through bureaucratic sabotage, smear campaigns, and the occasional financial blackmail. But what happens when even America, their supposed “partner in democracy,” starts calling them out?

Predictably, the liberal press went into meltdown mode. The British Guardian accused Vance of “interfering in European affairs” — pretty ironic, given how European leaders lecture America every time a Republican sets foot in the White House.

Germany’s Bild rushed to defend Scholz, who apparently delivered a “strong counter” to Vance. Strong, in this case, meant a few vague platitudes about “European unity” and a renewed pledge to keep the EU’s borders open no matter how much chaos it brings.

European politicians lined up to virtue-signal their disapproval. The French foreign minister called Vance’s remarks “deeply unhelpful”. A Belgian MEP whined about “American arrogance”. The irony, again, was thick enough to cut with a knife.

And then you have Macron, who sees his influence wither by the day as France is becoming but a shadow of its former self, call an emergency meeting in Paris, allegedly in order to discuss Ukraine. Fiddlesticks. The menu is surely going to be how EU bigwigs are going to deal with the national-conservative tsunami hitting from abroad as well as from within.

But here is the uncomfortable truth: JD Vance is right, and the European establishment knows it. The EU increasingly resembles a Soviet-style politburo, where ideological purity outweighs democratic legitimacy.

This is why they fear Vance and, by extension, the conservative movement sweeping the West. They thought they had successfully crushed any opposition. Surprise: enemy at the gates.

So the elites can clutch their pearls, stomp their feet, and shout about “populism” all they like. Sooner or later, reality bites. If they keep ignoring their own people, they won’t just lose the argument — they will lose power. And when that day comes, no amount of Guardian editorials will save them.