Pete Hegseth’s D-day speech on immigration condemned as ‘grotesque stupidity’ | D-day
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth has been accused by historians and rights activists of “grotesque stupidity” and disrespecting the memory of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy after trying to link the exodus to the D-day anniversary by saying Europe faced a different “invasion” on its shores.
Speaking in northwestern France on Saturday to mark the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings, Hegseth seized on the moment celebrating Europe’s wartime liberation to reiterate the US administration’s long-running attack on European immigration policies.
“Unfortunately, today different shores of Europe are under attack by different, dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth told those gathered at the American military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer.
“The beaches, boats and men in Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria are coming. When will the European capitals do something against this invasion, or is it too late? I pray and I believe that they will not,” he said.
“The men who fought and died here brought freedom back to Europe,” added Hegseth, the former Fox News host. “This freedom must be protected by this generation of leaders and war fighters, or what they fought for was only temporary.”
These remarks were quickly condemned on social media. British historian, author and television presenter Simon Schama described them as “a special kind of abomination: a mixture of historical deafness, outlandish stupidity and hilariously ridiculous self-indulgence.”
Schama added: “It’s as if little people’s anger against immigration is somehow superior to the war against the 3rd Reich, and that doesn’t give this comic anyone the right to lecture real heroes.”
Israeli human rights lawyer Daniel Seidemann from Jerusalem also weighed in on the issue. “This is an obscene desecration of the memory of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy, especially those who fell,” he wrote.
Anders Åslund, a Swedish economist and former senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, compared these comments to Hegseth’s later statements that the United States stood by its allies. “This is ridiculous,” he wrote on social media. “’We stand with our allies!’ No you don’t. You just attacked them. “Immigration policies are internal matters.”
Åslund said Hegseth’s comments were particularly “uninformed” considering his recent decision. jump an important NATO meeting and Donald Trump’s swears to cut Number of soldiers in Europe. “Doesn’t Hegseth know that the most unreliable ‘ally’ ever is the United States?” he said.
Hegseth’s hyper-focus on EU migration echoes comments from other American officials, including Trump, who has consistently sought to criticize the impact of migration on the continent despite having a US sanction. higher rate foreign national residents than the EU.
Hours before Hegseth’s speech, US vice president JD Vance also addressed the issue with a social media post blaming immigrants for the murder of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British student who was stabbed in England. Nowak’s British-born Sikh killer was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years.
On Sunday, David Lammy, the UK justice secretary and deputy prime minister, said he had an “understandable” conversation with Vance in which he tried to rectify the situation. “This has nothing to do with mass immigration. This young man was British,” Lammy told Sky News. “Let’s be clear about this. And I said, ‘Look, Mr. Vice President, you’re wrong about this.'”
The plans sparked controversy in the days before Hegseth’s visit to France, with a residents’ association calling for the trip to be cancelled. “This person supports values that are contrary to democracy, human rights and peace,” the association Langrune en Commun, which advocates environmentalism and solidarity among village residents, said in a press release last week.
Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV, a member of the association warned against acting as if everything was normal. “What’s happening with the Trump administration is not business as usual. Pete Hegseth’s defiance of all the international organizations that emerged from the second world war is also not business as usual.” in question Chantal Richard.
“The words must be spoken, he must speak out for who he is and the values he represents: colonialist, warmongering, racist, far-right values,” he added. “Silence seems to us to be the worst thing we can do in these matters.”
