US Vice-President JD Vance has said German politicians should work with all parties, including the hard-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on February 14, Vance, who has arrived in Munich, said he would tell European leaders that they must embrace the rise of anti-establishment politics, stop mass migration and curb progressive policies.
He also said he would call for a return to traditional values and the end of migrant crime.
“It’s really about censorship and about migration, about this fear that President Trump and I have, that European leaders are kind of terrified of their own people,” Vance said.
“I think that the will of the voters was unfortunately ignored by many of our European friends.”
Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AfD, reacted positively to his coments.
“US Vice-President JD Vance calls for an end to the firewall!” she said on X.
“The Trump administration has also recognised that a migration turnaround can only be achieved with the AfD. Merz must now show whether he really wants an end to the deadly migration crisis. Therefore AfD!”
According to the latest polls, Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz is on track to win the German national elections on February 23.
Vance was visiting Germany for the Munich Security Conference, where world leaders and decision-makers were to convene between February 14 and 16.
In Munich, Vance criticised Germany for its economic policies, which he said had led to deindustrialisation.
“Germany is the one country in NATO that did not follow the stupid Washington consensus and allow their country to be deindustrialised during the ‘70s, ’80s, and ‘90s,” he said.
“And yet, at the very moment that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is more and more powerful, where the Russian army is invading European countries en masse, this is the point at which Germany starts to deindustrialise?”
Tja, @JDVance spricht es aus, ohne das @Die_Gruenen & @spdbt ihr blödes Geschwätz lostreten können:
Hört auf zu Deindustrialisieren, hört auf mit dem Gelaber um „grüner“ Marktführer-Bullshit, während ein Land wie Russland mit 2.000 Panzern am Tor zu Europa einmarschiert! pic.twitter.com/OKcW4nh53s
— Danny Hillborou (@DannyHillborou1) February 14, 2025
US tech billionaire Elon Musk, now a close ally of Trump and who heads up the Department of Government Efficiency, has previously been outspoken in his support for the AfD.
Musk appeared in a video call at the party’s election campaign kick-off, praising it lavishly. His support caused widespread irritation among other German parties.
Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Musk’s support “disgusting”.
The country’s parliament was reported to be investigating whether an interview Musk had with Weidel could be considered an illegal campaign donation.
AfD’s core issue of migration dominated Germany’s political debate again when, on February 13, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan allegedly drove his car into a crowd, wounding 28 people, of whom two were fighting for their lives. One of those was a two-year-old, who had to undergo emergency surgery.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Vance warned that if Putin refused to accept a peace agreement with Ukraine that ensured Kyiv’s long-term independence, the US would impose sanctions on Moscow and maybe use military action.
According to the VP, if Moscow was unable to engage in realistic negotiations, the possibility of sending US forces to Ukraine was still “on the table”.
“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the US could use against Putin, Vance said.
