Germany's Scholz rebukes Vance, defends Europe's stance on hate speech and far right

MUNICH (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a strong rebuke on Saturday to U.S. Vice President JD Vance's attack on Europe's stance toward hate speech and the far right, saying it was not right for others to tell Germany, and Europe, what to do.

A day earlier at the Munich Security Conference, Vance lambasted European leaders, accusing them of censoring free speech and strongly criticising German mainstream parties' firewall against the far-right AfD.

"It is not for others to give us the advice to cooperate with this party that we are not working with for good reasons," Scholz said in remarks to the Munich conference.

"That is not appropriate, especially not among friends and allies. We firmly reject that," he said.

The anti-immigration AfD, currently polling at around 20% ahead of the February 23 general election, has pariah status among other major German parties in a country with a taboo about ultranationalist politics because of its Nazi past.

"Never again fascism, never again racism, never again aggressive war. That is why an overwhelming majority in our country opposes anyone who glorifies or justifies criminal National Socialism," Scholz said, referring to the ideology of Adolf Hitler's 1933-45 Nazi regime.

Referring more broadly to Vance's criticism of Europe's curtailing of hate speech, which he has likened to censorship, Scholz said: "Today's democracies in Germany and Europe are founded on the historic awareness and realisation that democracies can be destroyed by radical anti-democrats.

"And this is why we've created institutions that ensure that our democracies can defend themselves against their enemies, and rules that do not restrict or limit our freedom but protect it."

The prospect of talks to end the Ukraine-Russia war had been expected to dominate the annual Munich conference after a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, but Vance barely mentioned Russia or Ukraine in his speech to the gathering on Friday.

Instead, he said the threat to Europe that worried him most was not Russia or China but what he called a retreat from fundamental values of protecting free speech - as well as immigration, which he said was "out of control" in Europe.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Thomas Seythal and Ludwig Burger; editing by Ingrid Melander and Mark Heinrich)