Dark Parallels: Munich
On Feb. 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a dark joke at Munich Security Conference 2025, saying that there will be no agreement because “well, it is Munich,” referring to the dishonorable Munich Agreement of 1938. The Munich Agreement is widely seen as a failed attempt to contain Nazi expansionism and a lesson in the dangers of appeasing aggressive authoritarian regimes.
On Sept. 30, 1938, a diplomatic settlement between Germany, Britain, France and Italy allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia, without Czech participation. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Édouard Daladier pursued a policy of appeasement, hoping that conceding to German Führer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s demands would prevent a larger European war.
Hitler saw the agreement as a sign of weakness and, in March 1939, violated it by occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia. With Ukraine at risk of being left out of the “peace” negotiations between the United States and Russia, parallels are just way too obvious and hardly funny.
Another notable modern history milestone took place in Munich at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, when Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a belligerent speech, condemning U.S. “unipolar” dominance and decrying Western interference in global affairs. He painted NATO’s eastward expansion as a direct threat to the Russian Federation, positioning himself as the last defender of sovereignty. That speech laid the ideological foundation for Moscow’s efforts to reclaim former Soviet spheres of influence—a project that would culminate in the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As the Kremlin’s war of aggression in Ukraine entered its 11th year and anti-Russian protests shook Georgia and Slovakia, Putin’s expansionist ambitions and global fascist trends gained new momentum with the help of an unlikely ally. On Feb. 14, at yet another Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance delivered his own chilling message, declaring that “the threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within.”
Not only his words whitewashed Russian war crimes. Vance echoed Nazi rhetoric, particularly Hitler’s Mein Kampf and subsequent Nazi speeches, which framed Jews, political dissidents and internal enemies as the real threats to the nation. By reviving this narrative, a U.S. government official legitimized far-right discourse.
The U.S. Vice President did not mention the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) by name, but he met with AfD leaders during his visit, signaling U.S. approval. Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire acting as U.S. President Donald Trump’s right hand, infamous for a gesture allegedly identical to a Nazi salute at the inauguration ceremony, openly and continuously calls Germans to vote for AfD and for Europeans to join MEGA—“Make Europe Great Again.”
The Trump administration implicitly endorsed the dismantling of Germany’s political “firewall” (Brandmauer) against extremism—a firewall established to prevent a Nazi revival.
Germany’s Firewall Against Fascism Falls
After the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Allied occupation authorities initiated denazification, a process meant to purge former Nazis from public life. The West German constitution was built on democratic principles, outlawing extremist parties, such as the Socialist Reich Party (SRP), in 1952. In East Germany, the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) claimed to have eradicated fascism, though in practice, former Nazis were often reintegrated into the system.
For decades, Germany’s mainstream parties—the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP)—adhered to a strict policy of non-cooperation with the far right. Even as far-right parties like the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) gained traction in the 1960s, they remained politically isolated.
The rise of the far-right party AfD in the 2010s tested the “firewall.” The party transitioned from Euroscepticism to outright far-right nationalism, and while mainstream parties officially rejected alliances, exceptions were reported at local and state levels. From 2014 to 2021, instances of the CDU, the FDP and even Green politicians cooperating with the AfD multiplied—presented as pragmatic governance, in the form of joint motions, or through unspoken approvals.
On Jan. 30, the “firewall” fell. In an interview at the Bundestag, on the morning of Jan. 31, Beate Müller-Gemmeke, a Green Bundestag member, said, “Yesterday was a terrible day. In the morning, we had a memorial service for the liberation of Auschwitz and remembered the murdered Jewish people. In the afternoon, there was a government statement, and the Union (the CDU and the Christian Social Union (CSU)) introduced two motions aiming to severely restrict asylum rights.
“The Greens and Social Democrats refused to support it, but the Union put it to a vote anyway. They then got a majority, a narrow majority, but a majority nonetheless, with the AfD’s support. This was the first time the firewall fell, with a majority including the AfD. The Union seemed a bit stunned, while the AfD cheered. They hugged; it was a truly awful moment. We paused and held a party meeting because we’re not sure what this means. If someone votes with the AfD today, it’s not far from potentially joining them in government someday.”
The vote came just weeks before Germany’s Feb. 23 election. Henrietta, an 18-year-old Berlin resident and an intern in the Bundestag, said, “It’s the first time since this country has its constitution that we are closer to how the Nazis took over than ever. And I’m just terrified. I’m terrified for the next elections.
“I’m terrified for who our next Chancellor is going to be, because it currently looks like the party who worked together with the far-right party. And I just don’t want that for the future of Germany, and especially not for minorities. Everyone’s rights are in danger, and it’s just terrifying.”
Karen, a member of Müller-Gemmeke’s team, said, “A friend called me after the vote. Her 103-year-old mother, a Holocaust survivor, had watched the session on TV, crying. She no longer feels safe in Germany. Her daughters have found her a home in Tel Aviv, and she will leave soon. She is afraid.”
A Wake-Up Call for Europe
In the evening, Germans flooded the streets in protest all over the country. Thousands gathered in front of the CDU headquarters in Berlin, with posters and banners, waving phone flashlights and singing anti-fascist songs. One particularly poignant tune rang over the sea of lights in the heart of Berlin for more than 15 minutes:
Defend yourself
Join the resistance
Stand united against fascism
Or go to the barricades.
One of the protestors, Sasha, a German journalist in her mid-20s, said, “We are here protesting against the CDU, the CSU and the FDP because they broke with a fundamental social law in Germany by working together with the AfD, with the fascist party. They are the new Nazis in Germany and now they are gaining so much power…
“The whole country moved to the right in the past years, and especially in the last year. We are here to protest that because we don’t want to live in a country that is closed up and fascist and racist. And this is where we are moving. Unfortunately, CDU is in the front of it. We know that Russia is supporting the AfD financially and with propaganda and with their resources.”
What happened on Jan. 30 was more than just a domestic shift, several protesters explained. The far-right surge is amplified and funded by the Kremlin to divide and weaken German society and the EU. Politicians willing to abandon their constitutional values for votes and power endanger democracy further.
In an Orwellian twist, Moscow justifies its war by calling for Ukraine’s “denazification”—despite its democratically elected president being Jewish—and simultaneously fuels far-right and neo-Nazi movements across the world. With the latest shift in the White House, the world has entered a new realm of the surreal.
The former prime minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, called the Munich Conference 2025 “a wake-up call for Europe.” But will Europe wake up?
