Madam President, The reaction to the EU's technological backlog must not be to move into new dependencies, as the German government is doing with Palantir and Nvidia, for example. To be clear: I want a digitally independent European Union. That is why we need European innovation to secure European jobs. Industry is the backbone of our society, and modern technologies must become the backbone of ou
DESpeech
Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 15-16 October 2026 (debate)
Madam President, Nico, ‘Get Up, Stand Up“ by Bob Marley could probably be the better title at the moment to describe the situation in Europe. Hundreds of thousands are currently taking to the streets in a wave of social protest, and we don't hear a word from Mrs von der Leyen. We do not hear a word from Mr Costa about the fact that people are angry in France, Belgium, Italy and Portugal because en
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Urgent need for a tax on super-profits of polluters: protecting people’s health and lowering energy bills in times of the climate crisis (topical debate)
Madam President, In Berlin, the left wins the elections because my party will credibly address the central problem of this city. People can no longer afford rents. And my comrade Elif Eralp, soon mayor of Berlin, will change that. In Spain, half a million people take to the streets for affordable housing. The trigger was the forced eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen from her apartment, where she s
Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, unfortunately you remain a total failure in terms of social policy. Affordable energy for households at the tank, affordable food, affordable rent - this is not the case for you. Securing industrial jobs – just a side note for you. Excess profit taxes for energy multinationals, for defence companies or a digital tax for big tech companies – misreporting to you.
DESpeech
Urgent measures to strengthen the competitiveness and safeguard quality jobs in the EU’s automotive sector (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner! The employees of Mercedes-Benz are refusing to work longer without wage compensation, while excessive dividends are distributed to the major shareholders. Volkswagen's management has announced a drastic job cut; Four locations are to be closed in Germany alone. And CEO Blume is so outrageous to bail out more than 10 million euros every year generated by these employe
Mr President, Commissioner! Donald Trump is blackmailing the European Union and has started a trade war with it. He threatens to annex Greenland, designs anti-democratic regime change-Plans for EU states, starts wars of aggression in violation of international law, under which the European economy suffers and jeopardizes European jobs. Ursula von der Leyen should never have agreed to this bad deal
DESpeech
EU strategy in response to the ongoing Middle East crisis, its implications on energy prices and the availability of fertilizers (joint debate)
Madam President, All, but especially all with little money, feel the war against Iran in their wallets. Especially for families and for the working population, daily shopping becomes unaffordable and daily commutes to work become unaffordable. Actually, the debate should deal with the EU strategy on how to deal with this crisis, but here only buzzwords fell, I don't see any strategy. Worse still,
ENSpeech
Adjustment of customs duties and opening of tariff quotas for the import of certain goods originating in the United States of America (A10-0069/2026 - Bernd Lange) (vote)
Madam President, I want to request the adjournment of the vote on the two Lange files. This is nothing personal, but, colleagues, the US Supreme Court has ruled that this EU-US trade deal has no legal basis. And just yesterday, Trump made it very clear that he doesn't intend to honour the tariff section of the deal. This is not a fair deal; this is blackmailing. And as it stands now, the deal is h
Mr President! Thank you, Colleague Lange, for the insight into your taste in music. But if I follow the debate here and also refer to Trump's blackmail against the EU, then I can think of a completely different title or album, namely: Master of Puppets fromMetallica. This trade deal puts European industry at a disadvantage and puts jobs at risk. And in addition to the one-sided t
DESpeech
Housing crisis in the European Union with the aim of proposing solutions for decent, sustainable and affordable housing (debate)
Madam President, President Zelenskyy, I wish you that you will be not only the president who led Ukraine through four years of war, but the one who led it to peace. You have spoken here with the greatest possible openness about the state of diplomacy. For us on the left, it is clear that there must be a lasting and just peace and that this peace can only be achieved if Ukraine is involved on an eq
DESpeech
Urgent actions to revive EU competitiveness, deepen the EU Single Market and reduce the cost of living - from the Draghi report to reality (debate)
Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, I would have expected your speech to include an honest stocktaking so that you would not get lost in wishful thinking and headlines as so often. Honesty also includes the fact that the European economy has hardly been growing for years, but poverty is increasing sharply. Therefore, the sustainable and digital transformation of our industry with job security for
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Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire (debate)
Preparation of the European Council meeting of 18-19 December 2025, in particular the need to support Ukraine, transatlantic relations and the EU’s strategic autonomy (debate)
Madam President, Finally! After four years of the Russian war in Ukraine, the time of diplomacy seems to have come. The decisions made these days will shape the future of our continent for many years to come. Ukraine needs our support in this, and Russia must and should make reparations payments. However, the path you propose for this, Mrs von der Leyen, is legally highly risky. I honestly do not
DESpeech
Presentation of the European Affordable Housing Plan (debate)
Mr President! This new digital package sacrifices existing high European data protection standards on the altar of corporate competitiveness. Access to public data for businesses, trade in sensitive personal data, more tracking, more profiling - all this should now be possible. One could say that the Commission sells our data protection. Even AI training with private data of workers now wants to a
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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 23 October 2025 (debate)
Madam President, Mrs. von der Leyen! The benevolent speeches and sparse applause cannot hide the fact that today your political future is on the agenda of this House. Because today will answer whether this permanently divided coalition of Conservatives, Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens still carries your policies at all or whether a majority in the centre-right is forming in this House. And t
DESpeech
The new 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework: architecture and governance (debate)
Madam President, Wrong priorities, despondent, undemocratic - that is the Commission proposal in one sentence. This EU budget does not meet the growing social inequality, the worsening climate catastrophes or the changing world situation. And instead of involving large fortunes and companies in the social tasks, working families will have to pay the price for this despondency. Multis remain unscat
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Weber, Mrs Hayer, Mrs García Pérez! That a democratic vote of no confidence endangers democracy is really nonsense. In every sports club, the coach changes if the team constantly plays against the relegation. If the bankrupt vultures are circling over a public company or a private company, then the management must go. Only this Commission with its policy o
DESpeech
Implementation of EU-US trade deal and the prospect of wider EU trade agreements (debate)
Mr President! Commissioner, I think you really have a very specific positive reading of this trade deal. I think it would be good if you didn't lie to us here. Tariffs on European industrial goods of 15 percent, 50 percent on steel and aluminum, and in return American industrial products can be exported to the European Union at zero tariff or then imported from our perspective: This is, of course,