‘Dangerous ideologies’: Hegseth denounces European countries over migration ‘invasion’ in D-Day speech

3 min readJun 7, 2026 02:28 PM IST

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers a speech at the US cemetery to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings, in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth denounced European nations over migration during a D-Day anniversary speech in France, emphasising that the countries allowed what he described as an “invasion” on their shores.

Hegseth was speaking in Normandy, 82 years after Allied forces landed to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944.

“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said. “Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion?”

He said that some European capitals have grown too “comfortable” with the freedoms secured through past sacrifices since D-Day, forgetting that “freedom is not free”.

“The men who fought and died here restored freedom to Europe,” Hegseth said. “That freedom must be maintained by this generation of leaders and war fighters, or what they fought for was merely temporary.”

D-Day was the largest seaborne military operation in history, bringing together tens of thousands of troops from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada in a coordinated assault on five beaches in Normandy, northern France.

US VP Vance blames migrant ‘invasion’ for Nowak’s death

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Hegseth’s remarks come as US Vice President JD Vance blamed mass migration and what he described as political failures by European leaders for the death of British student Henry Nowak, arguing that stronger border controls and national sovereignty are essential to preventing similar incidents.

Nowak was fatally stabbed by 23-year-old Vickrum Singh Digwa last December in the southern England city of Southampton.

Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit. His murder is as tragic as it is enraging. He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few… https://t.co/e3HkjzWzwU

— JD Vance (@JDVance) June 5, 2026

“Henry Nowak died the same way a civilisation dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit. His murder is as tragic as it is enraging,” Vance said.

“He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it,” he added.

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