The Duran Podcast - Munich driven to TEARS. Collective west ends

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Munich driven to TEARS. Collective west ends

All right, Alexander, let's do a breakdown of the Munich Security Conference. The conference has ended. It ended in tears. Actually, you had the chairman of the actual conference breaking down on stage and crying because of the state of the entire event and the atmosphere of the event, which I believe was dictated by. by one, J.D. Vance, the vice president of the United States, who on the first day of the security conference,

delivered quite a remarkable speech. Maybe the second best speech ever given in Munich next to Putin's 2007 address at Munich. But that speech definitely set the mode, the mood, sorry, the mood, for the rest of the conference. and it wasn't even about Russia and China. It was about Europe and the problems with Europe and perhaps even an ultimatum by the United States to the Europeans. Get your act together or else where we're out of here.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the Munich Security Conference now that it has ended? And what do you think was the message from the United States and what do you foresee going forward? It was a speech that lasted all of 22 minutes. It was superbly delivered, if I can just say. Vance is clearly a fine orator. You know, somebody who has taken an interest in rhetoric,

I thought that at a technical level, it was a very, very accomplished speech. It was 22 minutes that changed everything. It has shaken Europe. the entire structure in Europe to its foundations. Because Vance came along and he said to the Europeans, you're not Democrats anymore. You're no longer free. You have become like the Soviet Union of the past.

You restrict free speech. You interfere in elections. You cancel elections, as you just did in Romania. You don't believe in democracy anymore. Since you are no longer Democrats, since you're no longer free, since you created authoritarian structures all around you, since you arrest people when they pray, pray not just outside clinics, but in their own home. And by the way, he's absolutely right about the laws that he described, which were British.

since all of that is what you do, why should the United States, which came to Europe to protect democracy, to protect freedom, to defend Europe from authoritarian and totalitarian threats, why should the United States continue to defend you? Now, that is not that implicit if you. If you, you're you read Vance's words, he actually pretty much said that. He said, we are now diverging so far from each other that we can't really consider ourselves to be sharing fundamental values anymore. I mean, he did leave it open for the Europeans to change their approach. But I don't I know he listening to him, he believes that they really will. So this was absolutely shocking.

Now, notice that the Europeans didn't come back and argue with any of you specific points. They didn't defend the election, the cancellation of the election in Romania. If they have, I haven't seen anybody come forward to do that. The Germans are furious because he met the leaders of the IFTA, complained about the fact that parties like the IFTA are being excluded from German politics. I spoke about the way the elections in Germany are conducted. Schultz was furious, Pistorius was furious, Mautz was furious, all of these people are incredibly angry.

But again, they're not really addressing Vance's complaints. And of course, as Pants said, they're very happy to interfere and meddle in other people's elections. They just don't like it when outsiders don't meddle but criticize their own. They didn't. The Germans didn't really address the substance of what Vance said. Nor did the British. The British didn't come along and say, he was misrepresenting our law. laws, people aren't being arrested for the kind of things that he says.

He's got all of this completely wrong. They didn't say that. There's been no real attempt to challenge him on any of these things. So given that this is so, the Europeans are furious. They are incredibly angry, but there's no reason to think that they intend to change their ways. And if you follow the logic, a J.D. Vancey speech. And bear in mind, there are many people who think that in four years' time he could be America's next president. He might be elected

America's next president. He's after all the vice president now. And by the way, there is no doubt at all that he was speaking for the administration. Trump hasn't come forward and said he went too far. The White House spokesman hasn't done that. There's been no pullback from within the administration. No, they said the opposite. They've said exactly the opposite. Exactly. They're exactly the opposite. So given that he's clearly speaking for the United States or at the very least for the administration and the Europeans are not prepared to change their ways, What this has to point to eventually is a divorce between the United States and Europe, given that the Americans are now talking to the Russians, given all the other things that the Americans are saying,

given the peak heads, eggsets says that America's priorities, defense priorities now lie in other places and that the Europeans can't expect America to stay, the American troops stayed Europe forever. I have to say this. To me, this speech that Vance gave is basically an early sign that Europe and America are not just going to go in different directions, but that the Western Alliance is ending. I was thinking a lot about the meaning, the repercussions of Vance's speech and how we got to this point for Europe. Can you make the argument that the Biden administration and other administrations as well, but mostly the Biden administrations over the past three years with a special military operation and going after Russia, that they misled, deliberately fooled or misled Europe to believe that Europe is at the same level

with the United States. Individual EU, European countries are equals, our partners, have an unbreakable alliance with the United States and have a say in how the world is going to be run. So that was what the Biden White House fooled the Europeans into believing. But then the Europeans, they trapped themselves in this belief that they're at an equal level with the United States. In comes a new administration, which then tells the Europeans, no, we want to go in a different direction. We see that you guys have taken things way too far when it comes to censorship, when it comes to censorship, when it comes to free speech, when it comes to canceling elections, when it comes to trying to cancel political parties.

And we're here to tell you that whatever Biden sold you in order to get you to play along with Project Ukraine, which has actually led to your own self-destruction, is not the route that we're going for. This is not the direction that we want to take things when it comes to the United States. And by the way, we don't have much respect for you because of what you took from the Biden administration, the beating that you took from the Biden administration and said nothing has lowered our respect for you.

For example, Nord Stream. I mean, do you see where I'm getting it all? It seems like the Europeans, they maneuvered themselves into this situation. But it was also the Biden White House, which kind of maneuvered them into. to this situation and they went along with it, happily went along with it. Absolutely, because what the Biden administration did was that it did full the Europeans and still believing that there was such a thing as the collective West and that this was all part of so great joint enterprise in which all parts of the West were equal partners or were willing

partners. Always, of course, there's been the acknowledgement that the president of the United state is the leader of this joint enterprise because the United States is far and away the strongest party, but they all thought they were part of the same team. Now, what the Europeans did not understand is that the Biden administration was not the United States. It was the Democratic Party, which is, or at least was, a powerful faction in the United States, but not the entirety of the United States. And that the Biden administration represented a faction, a political faction, within the United States, which has been steadily losing support and popularity. Now, the Europeans were, the European political class was very, very,

very, very much tied in with this faction in the United States. I should say the Democrats, the neocons, all of those people. And suddenly that faction loses a new team is in power. It's not just in power, but it is popular. I think this is the other thing to say with every single move that Trump has made over the last few weeks since he was inaugurated. His popularity has been rising. People like what he is doing. This is resonating with Americans and the Europeans suddenly discover that, as you absolutely rightly say, under Biden, they were led up the garden path. It was all a fool's voyage.

They thought that with Biden, they would be able to break Russia once and for all. They would get their hands on Russia's resources, which they've always hankered for. That was what the third energy package that the European Union came up with years ago was all about. They've been trying to bully the Russians and to agreeing to it. The Russians have always refused. And, well, now that's, to all intents and purposes, dead. and they're not going to be able to get their hands on Russian resources. They're not going to be able to overthrow Putin.

They're not going to be able to crush all the dissenters in their own midst. They're not going to be able to continue with the policy of unending European integration with American backing, as they had. They'll try and continue with the policy of European integration, but it will not be done with the full and active support and involvement of the government of the United States in the way that was the case previously. And you could see all the steps that the Biden administration was doing. Alcus, the alliance with the British and the Australians,

which of course flattered the British hugely in the Pacific. The new Atlantic Charter that Boris Johnson and Joe Biden signed. forgotten of Spanish into the mist, but I remember how much it was talked about when it was, you know, unveiled, all of those things. So yes, they were convinced that it was a joint enterprise, not one that involved their peoples or their countries. Their countries and their peoples were paying the price for that joint enterprise. But now, after Biden has gone, after this new team has taken charge, they suddenly understand that it was all fake, it was all unreal, that in fact there was never a joint enterprise at all, that the Americans

were always in control, and that the Americans are now switching the whole thing off, and they find themselves humiliated and embarrassed, and they simply don't know what to do. Okay, so what do they do? What will they do? Here's a better question. What will they do? But what should they do? Because you have a situation now where you have countries like, let's say Estonia or the Baltics, let's say the Baltics, who really talk a big game, especially towards Russia, even towards China, even towards China, who really really talk a big game because they know that behind them, as they're talking a big game to China or Russia, they've got the U.S. behind them. But all of a sudden, they look in back of them and they're

saying, wait a minute, where's the U.S.? As I'm talking a big game and threatening Russia and China, I see that, you know, the U.S. is not behind me to protect me. So you have this dynamic, which is now hit the Europeans. It's hit them hard. Yes. Meanwhile, you have guys. like Orban, guys like Fizzo, possibly Georgescu, people who are saying, look, we can fix Europe. We can fix the situation. We know how to do it. Let us take over. Let us run things for a bit. Let's reform the EU from the inside and let's make Europe great again, as they're saying. They're starting to even say, make Europe great again. Let's make Europe sovereign. Let's make Europe Let's look after Europeans' interests, the European citizens' interests.

But then you have the other force, the Macron's, the Stomers, the Schultz, the Annalina's, all of these people. What are they going to do? But what should they do? Well, I see, well, because I see an opportunity here. Yeah, absolutely. There's an opportunity to finally be rid of all these very mediocre. And I'm being very polite when I say mediocre leaders and politicians.

Well, very mediocre. Very mediocre. I mean, you know, these people are not qualified to run a lemonade stand, but all of a sudden, they're running Europe into the ground. So this could be an opportunity if they approach it correctly. Absolutely. What should they do? Let's start with that, because actually it's very easy.

They should take all of Vance's criticism seriously. As I said, they haven't been able to rebut them. They haven't come along and said that Vance in anything that he said was actually factually wrong. So they could do all of the things that Vance is suggested that they do. They could have proper elections. They could dismantle all the information control. They could allow free speech to operate again. They can stop running up people and charging them with offenses for riots, which never happened, which we've talked about with respect to England. They could do all of those things. And they could also start acting like responsible countries and instead of

fermenting wars on their eastern borders with absurd ideas about getting hold of resources, they could actually do what they should have done years and years and years ago and come to a proper long term sustainable settlement with the Russians. which they could do. That's what Orban, Fizzo, Jorgascu, people like that are say. And, of course, in order to do all of those things, they should take a good, strong, hard look at their own institutions. They should start dismantling this terrible structure that they created at the heart of Europe, the EU center, the European, Commission, with all its enormous powers, its centralisation, and all of those things. They could revisit the question of the euro, whether the euro is a good idea, and whether

it's proper for the European Union, for the European people to be shackled to this thing. They could start dismantling all of those things. They could become countries again. They could have another access of liberty to use American language. and they could pursue a policy of peace. There is what they should do. Of course, they wouldn't do any one of those things. Or at least their instincts propel them in a completely different direction.

More centralisation, more control. We're going to have more talk about European armies, about increasing defence spending. That will mean more pressure to float euro bonds to pay for all of this defence spending. the money is going to be reallocated from, you know, the structural funds are going to be reallocated to defense spending. Ursula and Herminians are going to run all of that. That requires more information control to keep the European electorates loyal.

That means scaring people with the Russian scarecrow, the Russians are coming. If we don't do all of these things, that means launching more campaigns saying, you know, if anybody criticizes any one of these policies, that proves that they're a Putinist agent or something of that kind. We're going to see more of the same. More Europe to borrow a phrase popularized by Macron. And we must understand that when European leaders talk about more Europe. They mean all of the things that I've just set out.

More information control, more centralization, Eurobonds, the whole package. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. That's what's going to probably happen, unfortunately. Yeah. Which if you take Vance seriously... It means a divorce. It means divorce.

Exactly. No. All right. We will end the video there. the durand.locals.com. We are on Rumble, Odyssey, Bitch, Telegraph, Rockfin, X. Go to the Duran Shop, pick up some merch. Like what you see us wearing in this video update today, the link is in the description box down below. Take care.