Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday firmly dismissed any foreign interference in German elections, following remarks by US Vice President JD Vance urging Europe to welcome far-right parties. France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, echoed the sentiment, stating that "no one can impose" their model on Europe.
Speaking on the same stage at the Munich Security Conference, the German chancellor pushed back against Vance's blistering speech from the previous day and defended Germany's taboo against including the far right in government coalitions.
Scholz, whose country is holding elections on 23 February, said, "we will not accept outsiders intervening in our democracy, in our elections. That is not appropriate - especially not among friends and allies."
'Never again'
He started his speech by mentioning US Vice President Vance's earlier visit to Nazi Germany's Dachau concentration camp near Munich, and the US vice president's commitment to "never again" allow such crimes to be committed.
The crimes of the Holocaust were the reason "the vast majority of Germans is firmly opposed to those who glorify or justify" the Nazis, Scholz said.
This was something that members of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had done by trivialising Nazi crimes, the chancellor said.
"A commitment to 'never again' cannot be reconciled with support for the AfD," Scholz said.
"That is why we will not accept outsiders intervening in our democracy, in our elections, in the democratic formation of opinion in favour of this party.
"That is not appropriate -- especially not among friends and allies.
"We decide for ourselves how our democracy will continue," he said.
"We are absolutely clear that the extreme right should stay outside the political decision-making process and that there would be no cooperation with them," Scholz said, when pushed on Vance's comments during a question and answer session.
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also defended European policies on Saturday.
"Freedom of expression is guaranteed in Europe," Barrot wrote on social media, after Vance alleged it was "in retreat".
"Nobody is obliged to adopt our model, but nobody can impose theirs on us," the French minister added.
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Broadside against Europe
Vance on Friday launched a broadside against Europe, and Germany in particular, accusing them of limiting free speech and excluding parties that voice strong concerns over immigration.
The US Vice-President told the Munich conference that "democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters".
"There's no room for firewalls," he added, using the common term for the German political taboo against working with the far right.
The clash between the traditional allies comes just over a week before German national elections.
Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats are currently third in the polls on around 15 percent of the vote.
The AfD is expected to score its best-ever national result, now polling in second place on around 20 percent.
The race is being led by the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, whose support stands at around 30 percent.
(AFP)
