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Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Saturday accused Vice President JD Vance of unacceptably interfering in his country\u2019s imminent elections on behalf of a party that has played down the atrocities committed by the Nazis 80 years ago.<\/p>\n
A day after Mr. Vance stunned the Munich Security Conference<\/a> by telling German leaders to drop their so-called firewall and allow the hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to enter their federal government, Mr. Scholz accused Mr. Vance of effectively violating a commitment to never again allow Germany to be led by fascists who could repeat the horrors of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n \u201cA commitment to \u2018never again\u2019 is not reconcilable with support for the AfD,\u201d Mr. Scholz said at the conference on Saturday morning, in an address opening the gathering\u2019s second day.<\/p>\n Mr. Scholz said the AfD had trivialized Nazi atrocities like the concentration camp at Dachau<\/a>, which Mr. Vance visited on Friday. The chancellor said Germany \u201cwould not accept\u201d suggestions from outsiders about how to run its democracy \u2014 or directives to work with such a party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat is not done, certainly not among friends and allies,\u201d Mr. Scholz said. \u201cWhere our democracy goes from here is for us to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Attendees at Mr. Vance\u2019s speech had been expecting to hear details of the Trump administration\u2019s plans for Ukraine peace talks and NATO defense policies. On Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine himself put the focus on the Ukraine war in his remarks, starkly laying out the threat from Russia\u2019s battle-hardened military and making an impassioned appeal for Europeans to take their security into their own hands, including by forming an \u201cArmy of Europe\u201d that would supplement U.S. power on the continent.<\/p>\n His speech drew standing ovations, in contrast to Mr. Vance\u2019s speech the day before.<\/p>\n Mr. Scholz\u2019s comments underscored a growing unease among Europe\u2019s leaders about their relationship with the United States, and their own domestic politics. They came as leaders scrambled at the summit to formulate a response to President Trump\u2019s sudden shift in Ukraine policy \u2014 and the possibility that he could cut the continent out of negotiations.<\/p>\n Just a few days before Mr. Vance\u2019s remarks, Mr. Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on virtually every country the United States trades with. Then he spoke of negotiating an end to Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine directly with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, leaving Europeans, including Ukraine, wondering if they would be included. Poland\u2019s foreign minister said at the summit that President Emmanuel Macron of France had called an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss Ukraine on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n At the same time, far-right parties across Europe have gained ground by tapping into unease over immigration, which also helped propel Mr. Trump back to power in the United States. Mr. Vance\u2019s comments suggested that a new kind of American alliance with Europe was forming, one that bypasses the official leadership in favor of movements like Germany\u2019s AfD and France\u2019s National Rally.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s sessions of the security conference were dominated by reactions, predominantly negative, to Mr. Vance\u2019s speech \u2014 and Mr. Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n Mr. Scholz was joined in his criticism by Friedrich Merz, his rival as the chancellor candidate for the conservative Christian Democrats, who polls suggest is the favorite to be Germany\u2019s next leader.<\/p>\n Mr. Vance spent much of his speech on Friday scolding Europeans for what he suggested were Soviet-style restrictions on free speech across the continent. On Saturday, Mr. Merz defended Germany\u2019s laws that prohibit particular forms of speech, including hate speech and banned Nazi slogans, including on social media.<\/p>\n