Vice President JD Vance recently sparked controversy with a common sense speech that warned European nations against embracing anti-democratic ideals like the censorship of free speech, shutting down or outlawing political groups and parties they disagree with, and annulling or canceling elections to avoid results they don't like.

Vance's warning was just proven both correct and necessary, as the government of France is now in the process of shutting down a popular ideologically right-leaning TV station, according to The European Conservative.

The move to silence the channel is particularly ironic, the outlet noted, in light of the European political establishment's collective insistence that the U.S. vice president was "talking nonsense about censorship" in his big speech just one week earlier.

VP Vance's speech

In his recent speech delivered to the Munich Security Conference in Germany, VP Vance addressed some of the "threat from within" that European nations faced by way of their own anti-democratic actions, including censoring speech they didn't like and ignoring the political will of the citizenry that they didn't agree with.

He warned that "free speech, I fear, is in retreat" across Europe, as it had been in the U.S. until last year's election of President Donald Trump, and asserted, "Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election."

"I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections, or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing," Vance declared. "In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy. Speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference."

He added, "But what no democracy -- American, German, or European -- will survive, is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief, are invalid or unworthy of even being considered."

France shuts down popular right-leaning TV channel

Unfortunately, at least when it comes to France, VP Vance's message against censorship was ignored, as the French Council of State upheld and confirmed the decision of regulatory authority ARCOM to revoke the broadcast license of right-leaning TV channel C8, per The European Conservative.

The channel, owned by Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré, had been the subject of numerous complaints from leftist activists and establishment figures for having provided a public platform for "far-right ideas." The channel attempted to appeal the license withdrawal but was unsuccessful.

Several prominent right-leaning figures in France decried the overt censorship of the C8 channel, including Marine Le Pen, a leader of the publicly popular but establishment-despised right-wing populist National Rally party.

In an X post, Le Pen wrote, "The confirmation by the Council of State of the cessation of activity of C8 is a terrible regression and a worrying decision that proves right the Ayatollahs of the single thought, the diktats of a sectarian left that would like to see and hear only one voice, that of the system. This political correctness that claims to think well when it prevents others from thinking differently, must worry the French about the threats that weigh heavily on pluralism and freedom of opinion."

France's actions prove Vance was correct

British author and historian Gavin Mortimer, in an op-ed for The Telegraph, surmised that France's "authoritarian crackdowns on free speech" had validated the points made by VP Vance in his speech and proved that his warnings had been correct.

He noted that ARCOM and the Council of State are almost entirely composed of leftists, that the shuttering of C8 has been linked to the office of French President Emmanuel Macron, and that French regulators have also set their sights on shutting down CNews, another popular channel owned by Bolloré, allegedly for little more than having "become the most watched news channel in France for no other reason than it challenges the shibboleths of the progressive elite."

Vance was correct and justified in calling out European progressives for their concerted efforts to censor and silence conservative and right-leaning speech as being antithetical to the fundamental ideals of democracy, but per Mortimer, "unfortunately the French elite seems bent on destroying their democracy."