German Leader Denounces Vance’s Overture to Far-Right Party
- Scholz says ‘will not accept’ intervention in German election
- German democracy a bulwark against Nazism, Scholz says
Olaf Scholz during the Munich Security Conference, on Feb. 15.
Photographer: Alex Kraus/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned US Vice President JD Vance’s overture to Germany’s far right as a direct intervention in the country’s democracy, marking a new low point in transatlantic relations after Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Speaking on the same stage at the Munich Security Conference where a day earlier Vance scolded delegates and signaled that German leaders should drop “firewalls” holding the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany out of power, Scholz responded by evoking the country’s Nazi past.