Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned US Vice President James David Vance that if he is going to quote the late Pope John Paul II and his legendary "Do not be afraid", he should know that the pope told Poles in Warsaw not to be afraid to stand up to Soviet domination, when Poland was a satellite of the USSR.
"Anyone who quotes John Paul II's words 'Do not be afraid' must remember that they were intended to strengthen Poles in their resistance to Russian domination," the Polish prime minister told Vance on X Network today.
The US vice president at the Munich Security Conference missed the mark when he quoted the Pope's words "Do not be afraid" in the context of a call to European leaders not to be afraid of their citizens even when they express views that the country's leadership does not like.
"It increasingly seems to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic that old entrenched interests are hiding behind ugly words from the Soviet era as disinformation, and they simply don't like the idea that someone with a different point of view could express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote differently or, worse, win an election," Vance said in Munich.
Vance's criticism of Europe was sharply responded to by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who warned Vance that partially extremist parties such as the AfD were running a completely normal campaign like the others, and that the AfD candidate for chancellor was participating in prime-time television debates along with the other candidates.
"Democracy, however, does not mean that the vocal minority is automatically right. Democracy must be able to defend itself against extremists who want to destroy it," Pistorius added.
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