‘Free speech in retreat’- JD Vance warns Europe of ‘threat from within’
JD Vance has accused the UK and Europe of a “backslide away from conscience rights”, warning of the “threat from within” and claiming: “Free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
The US vice-president made the comments while addressing European leaders at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday, amid wider concern on the continent over negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Discussing European security, he said: “We gather at this conference of course to discuss security and normally we mean threats to our external security.
“But while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that its important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defence, the threat that I worry most about vis-a-vis Europe, is not Russia, not China, its not any external actor.
“What I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
Vance argued that while “you all came here prepared to talk about how exactly you intend to increase defence spending over the next few years… let me also ask you how will you even begin to think through the kinds of budgeting questions if we don’t know what it is that we are defending in the first place?”
He added: “I’ve heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from and of course that’s important but what has seemed a little bit less clear to me… is exactly what you’re defending yourselves for.
“What is the positive vision that animates this shared security compact?”
And the vice-president warned: “If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.”
In the speech taking aim at claimed infringes on free speech, he said: “When I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners.”
And he claimed: “And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
Vance criticised the UK over a legal case in which a former serviceman who silently prayed outside an abortion clinic was convicted of breaching the safe zone around the centre.
The Republican politician – who is a convert to Catholicism – referred to the conviction of Adam Smith-Connor, 51, who was found guilty last year of failing to comply with the public space protection order in November 2022.
In a wider attack on what he suggested was a shift away from democratic values in Europe, he continued: “A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.
“After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.
“Now the officers were not moved – Adam was found guilty of (breaking) the government’s new buffer zones law, which criminalises silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person’s decision within 200 metres of abortion facility.
“He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution… in Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
In the UK, buffer zones outside all abortion clinics came into force in October last year, prohibiting protests within 150m, with officials describing them as “stronger safeguards for women accessing this vital health service”.
Speaking at the time, patient safety and women’s health minister Baroness Merron said: “The safety and wellbeing of women accessing abortion services remains our priority.”
According to the BBC, a public consultation found 75 per cent of local 2,241 residents backed the introduction of the buffer zone at the clinic where Smith-Connor was praying.