We can all see that free speech is under threat in Europe. It feels like every week, a new horrific story about someone getting thrown in jail for having the “wrong” opinion goes viral. To the rest of the world, the continent has become a laughing stock. Americans in particular watch with horror as EU states punish their populations for criticising governments or posting rude words on the internet. Elon Musk, owner of social-media platform X, often draws global attention to these cases, to such an extent that even the U.S. government has expressed alarm and concern that European citizens are in danger of totalitarian-style speech restrictions.
So why do our elites keep pretending none of this is happening? When asked about Musk and his criticisms of Europe at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this January, then German chancellor Olaf Scholz had this to say: “We have freedom of speech in Europe. And in Germany, everyone can say what he wants, even if he is a billionaire … What we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme right positions.”
This was a display of an almost impressive lack of self-awareness. For starters, Scholz’s statement is inherently a contradiction. Speech cannot be free if it is only protected for some people. Censoring anyone, even if they support “extreme right positions,” is still a violation of that most fundamental right.
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