There are now two key dates in the history of the Munich Security Conference: 2007 and 2025. Two editions at which hostile speeches provoked symmetrical shocks on the crowd of defense and diplomatic elites gathered each year in the Bavarian capital; the first by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the second by US Vice President JD Vance.

In 2007, Putin, invited to Munich for the first time, stunned the West with a highly aggressive speech against the United States, which he accused of wanting to establish a unipolar order. In retrospect, it has been seen as one of the turning points of the post-Cold War era, Putin’s first warning to the West.

On Friday, February 14, America, Europe’s great ally, was the one that turned against its partners, fracturing the West. “In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town,” warned Donald Trump’s vice president. He then launched into a virulent diatribe against European democracies, accusing them of stifling free speech and religious freedom.

‘We shouldn’t be afraid of our own people’

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